Starbucks Facing Big Fine for Treating Workers Badly

Starbucks is in trouble. The city of New York just made them pay a huge fine. This is because they did not treat their workers fairly. The fine is $39 million. This is the biggest fine like this in New York City's history. The problem was about work schedules. Starbucks did not give their workers stable schedules. This means workers did not know when they would work. This made it hard for them to plan their lives. The city found that Starbucks did this more than 500, 000 times since 2021. Over 15, 000 workers will get money back because of this. Workers have been complaining for years. They say Starbucks cuts their hours. They also say the company does not give them predictable schedules. The city agrees. They say Starbucks put profits first. They did this instead of respecting workers' rights. The mayor of New York, Eric Adams, is happy about the settlement. He says it will put money back into workers' pockets. He also says it will reinforce workers' rights. These rights include reliable schedules and full hours. New York has a law about this. It is called the Fair Workweek Law. It was approved in 2017. The law says employers must give workers regular schedules. They must also give schedules 14 days in advance. They cannot cut hours by more than 15 percent without a good reason. Starbucks says the law is hard to follow. They say the violations were about compliance. They say it was not about not paying workers. But the city disagrees. They say Starbucks did not treat workers fairly. This is a big deal. It shows that companies must treat their workers well. It also shows that workers have rights. They can fight for these rights. And they can win.