Just can't leave it behind...

Well,

I open the Houston Chronicle (local paper) website for first time today and what do I find. Overtime abuse by Starbucks in Houston. The fun begins:

Feb. 22, 2008, 10:04PM
Starbucks settles Houston overtime lawsuit
Assistant manager's case included about 350 other workers

By CRAIG HARRIS
Seattle Post-intelligencer

SEATTLE — Nearly three years after a Starbucks assistant manager in Houston alleged that he was forced to work off the clock, the Seattle-based coffee giant has settled an overtime wage case with the former employee and roughly 350 other workers.

The settlement comes as Starbucks is fighting at least two other major lawsuits in which employees allege they were not legally compensated.

Starbucks and James Falcon earlier this month agreed to end the Houston case just before it was headed to trial in U.S. District Court. Terms of the settlement, which needs the court's approval, were not disclosed. The next hearing is March 4.

"This resolution will hopefully provide fair compensation to the participants," Martin Shellist, lead counsel for the plaintiffs, said Friday.

Shellist said the case covered 356 assistant managers from around the country who had joined the suit and worked at Starbucks after March 11, 2002. Those who had not previously joined the suit are not eligible to receive any settlement money.

Starbucks and its attorney did not return calls, and Falcon could not be reached.

The legal battles coincide with a massive reorganization at Starbucks, where Chairman Howard Schultz has recently returned to run the daily operations. Starbucks has said it would close 100 underperforming stores as it works to resuscitate a flagging stock price.

The Houston case was filed in March 2005, when Falcon alleged he worked beyond 40 hours a week but was not paid for logging the additional hours.

Falcon, in the suit, said he was entitled to overtime pay — time-and-one-half for each hour worked beyond 40 hours — because Starbucks in late 2002 reclassified its assistant store managers and paid them on an hourly basis instead of a salary.

He claimed that while he did perform some managerial duties, the majority of his time was spent doing the work of baristas, hourly employees who wait on customers, make drinks or clean the store.

The case was dismissed Feb. 11, after the parties had negotiated a settlement.