Starbucks settles disability discrimination suit for $85,000

Starbucks Corp. has agreed to pay $85,000 to settle a disability discrimination lawsuit filed in 2006 by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission after the company fired a Seattle barista with bipolar disorder.

The EEOC said today that Starbucks gave Christine Drake extra training and support while she worked as a barista in its Queen Anne-neighborhood coffee shop for more than two years, starting in 2001. But in her third year, new management at the coffee shop discontinued the extra support and then fired her, which the EEOC said violated the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Starbucks did not immediately return calls for comment.

The EEOC said Starbucks agreed to pay Drake $75,000 and give $10,000 to the Disability Rights Legal Center, which provides lawyers for low-income disabled people facing discrimination. Starbucks will also train managers about illegal discrimination and will give the EEOC information about disability discrimination complaints inside the company for the next year, the commission said.

Shares of Starbucks dropped 17 cents to $27.57 in midday trading.