Starbucks told to turn in names in overtime-pay lawsuit

A federal judge has given Starbucks a week to hand over the names of current and former U.S. store managers in an overtime-pay lawsuit.

Sean Pendlebury and Laurel Overton, both Starbucks store managers in Florida, sued the company in June 2004, claiming they were denied overtime pay even though they spent most of their time doing nonmanagerial tasks.

Both Pendlebury, of Boca Raton, and Overton, of Delray Beach, are still employed by Starbucks.

The order, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Southern Florida, asks the company to give the plaintiffs' attorney the names, dates of employment and last-known addresses of employees that worked as store managers during the three years preceding the filing of the lawsuit.

Starbucks said in a prepared statement that the plaintiffs are properly classified and exempt under federal wage laws. It called the order "procedural."

"In fact, the court made clear that, in allowing the notice to be issued, it was not expressing any opinion as to the merits of the lawsuit."

Dan Levine, a partner with Boca Raton-based Shapiro Blasi & Wasserman, said it plans to mail consent forms to the list of current and former managers to seek more plaintiffs in the overtime lawsuit.

The court set a July 26 deadline to return consent forms.

In April 2002, Starbucks agreed to pay as much as $18 million to settle an overtime lawsuit filed by more than 1,000 managers in its California stores.

Starbucks denied liability in the case, but said it agreed to settlement to resolve the claims and avoid protracted litigation.

The lawsuit comes at a time when Starbucks is beefing up the managerial ranks in its U.S. retail stores.

With a long-term goal of expanding to 30,000 stores nationwide, Starbucks has hired more assistant store managers, with the goal that they will run future stores.

Monica Soto Ouchi: 206-515-5632 or msoto@seattletimes.com