Top 6 ways to avoid a Starbucks-type age discrimination lawsuit

Published on December 4, 2008 by Donna Seale

An age discrimination lawsuit brought against Starbucks in the US is being allowed to proceed. In the civil suit, a 56 year old woman claims that although she applied to a number of Starbucks stores in Portland, Oregon between November 2005 and April 2006, she was never hired. Her view is that there could be only one reason for not being hired — her age.

Although Starbucks has denied any discrimination and contends that it "prides itself on embracing diversity", the Plaintiff's lawyer says she has information which shows that:

Starbucks' hiring practices were ignored by at least one manager at a location the woman applied at;
of the 19 employees hired by this same manager, none were over the age of 30;
between 2004 and 2008 (capturing the period of time the Plaintiff applied for jobs at Starbucks), as demonstrated by an analysis of Starbucks' hiring practices by a local sociology professor, a greater percentage of those age 35 or older had applied for but not received a job.

The Plaintiff's lawyer alleges that this all adds up to proof of hiring practices that are discriminatory on the basis of age.

Whether or not Starbucks will ultimately be found to have discriminated against this woman on the basis of her age remains to be seen. But, I think the case raises some important issues that all employers, whether they are located in the US or Canada, should be continually thinking and doing something about to avoid having to fend off similar legal action. Here is my list of the top six ways employers can avoid a Starbucks-type lawsuit:

Just because you say you support diversity doesn't get you a one-way ticket to slam dunking a discrimination claim if one comes your way. You need to ensure your hiring practices actually support your message. This means examining them to ensure they meet human rights law obligations in your particular jurisdiction;
If you have established hiring policies and procedures which address diversity and workplace human rights, well, for goodness sake follow them. Your policy won't be worth the paper it is written on if you find yourself having to defend against a claim of discrimination in your hiring process;
Make sure those responsible for hiring know about workplace human rights and how not to violate them;
Keep track of who you're hiring and who you aren't — are there any definable patterns or trends? If so, those trends could signal systemic discrimination. Looking back at the Starbucks situation, if you're getting applications from the over 35 set yet when you look around your workplace all you see are 19-20 somethings, might there be barriers in the systems you've established to hire that prevent certain segments of the population from becoming one of your employees? This not only applies to age-related issues, but all protected characteristics under human rights legislation (eg. disability, race, sex, etc.);
Do the people you are hiring reflect the people who are your customers? The diversity reflected in your employee pool should strive to reflect your pool of customers. If the diversity equation is out of whack, maybe you should have a look at whether you're just attracting employees who look like who they see when they come to buy your product or service. Consider reaching out to a broader base of potential employees. Not only could this enhance the diversity of your employees, it can also have a positive impact on your customer base as well. Like tends to attract like so one way to expand your customer base is to expand the diversity of your employee population;
If you've made attempts and been successful at hiring people from diverse backgrounds and they've stuck with you, find out what worked. If your attempts have failed, though, try to find out what went wrong so you can improve your processes and garner success the next time.

Those are my top 6. Care to add to the list? If so, feel free to comment.

Categories: Discrimination, Diversity, Human rights basics, In the News, Items of interest