Federal Court Approves Starbucks’ Settlement of Wage-and-Hour Class Action

A federal court in California has preliminarily approved a $3 million settlement of claims by state Starbucks Corp. employees that the company denied them off-duty breaks because its busy stores were understaffed and  the company required employees to take their breaks on-duty if only two employees were present. York v. Starbucks Corp., No. 08-7919 (C.D. Cal., order entered June 10, 2013). According to a news source, the court expressed some reservations about the incentive awards to the named plaintiffs, noting that the Ninth Circuit “seems to be taking an evermore-aggressive look at incentive awards and expecting the trial court to look closely at those things.” Additional information about the settlement appears in Issue 484 of this Update. See Law360, June 10, 2013.