Caribou Coffee settles labor suit for $2.7MCaribou Coffee settles labor suit for $2.7M

MINNEAPOLIS Caribou Coffee Co. has agreed to settle a class-action labor dispute for $2.7 million, pending court approval. The plaintiffs charged that Caribou violated the Fair Labor Standards Act by misclassifying coffeehouse managers as exempt from overtime play.

Caribou said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that it would deduct attorney’s fees from the total and pay the remainder in two installments before the end of this calendar year, in addition to its share of payroll taxes.

The nation’s second-largest specialty coffee chain, Caribou oversees 484 units, of which 52 are franchised.