You can tell a lot about the people in the boardroom by how well they treat the workers who are the public face of their business.  I think I just learned today everything I need to know about Starbucks: they steal tip money from their servers.

Starbucks won’t pay back barista tips

Thousands of Starbucks employees got a personal message from their upset boss, who said the company was being “grossly mischaracterized” in the media over a recent tip pool controversy that could cost the company more than $100 million.

Chairman and Chief Executive Howard Schultz, in a voice-mail message to employees Wednesday night, called last week’s ruling by a California judge "extremely unfair and beyond reason" and said he wanted employees to know the truth.

"I want to personally let you know that we would never condone any type of behavior that would lead anyone to conclude that we would take money from our people," he said.

In a separate statement, the company also said, "Contrary to some reports, Starbucks has not taken money from any of its partners, and nor is there money to be refunded or returned from Starbucks." A spokeswoman said Thursday that Starbucks Corp. has no intention of ending the practice of sharing tips among baristas and shift supervisors in California while it seeks an injunction.

San Diego Superior Court Judge Patricia Cowett, in her ruling last week, said there was "uncontroverted testimony that Starbucks continues to utilize the distribution of tips from the tip pool to compensate shift supervisors as well as baristas." Cowett ordered Starbucks to pay thousands of California baristas $86.7 million plus interest for breaking the law.

Now…read that again, particularly that second to last paragraph.  Starbucks is saying that "contrary to some reports" they don’t take money from their "partners"…and then in the next breath they insist they’ll keep on doing it.  The weasel word there is "partners".  Starbucks doesn’t take any money from its "partners".  But "partners" isn’t the issue, however Starbucks chooses to define who is and who is not a "partner".  The issue is, are they taking tip money from their servers.  And…yes as a matter of fact, they are.  That’s what, specifically, they were found guilty of doing, and that’s what, specifically, they’re insisting they’ll keep right on doing.

The tips belong to the servers.  Customers aren’t tipping the business, they’re tipping their servers.  In most cases, the tips are what the servers depend on for a decent income.  Taking their tip money is not only immoral, it also happens to be illegal in many states, including California.  Now…it’s one thing to insist you weren’t breaking the law.  It’s another to insist that the law is unconstitutional and you’ll fight it all the way to the supreme court.  And it’s another still to insist that you didn’t do it, in the same breath as you assert that you’re going to keep right on doing it.  Starbucks isn’t just giving the finger to it’s servers and customers here, it’s laughing in the face of anyone who can read plan English.

A dear friend of mine works as a waiter, but that’s not the only reason this behavior makes me angry.  I never worked for tips in my life…I’m just not outgoing enough to make a go of that kind of work.  You have to have a bit of the stage in you I think to be good at that and I am more stage crew then stage.  But I know very well what it’s like to work in the service sector and it’s many hours of of hard, thankless work for mostly uncaring, rude and overbearing bosses, usually for not enough money to make ends meet.  From what I hear, most folks who work service sector jobs these days need two jobs to earn a bare bones living.  And a lot of those businesses nowadays do their damndest to avoid having to pay their service people a decent wage…from limiting their hours so they don’t qualify for full time benefits (and federal protections), to creatively placing them into pseudo-management positions so they don’t have to pay them overtime. 

I guess stealing your employee’s tip money is just another way of lining your pockets being a successful businessman in Republican Party Of Moral Values America.  How Howard Schultz can live as well as he does and take his servers’ tip money and still look at himself in a mirror every morning and think he sees a decent man looking back at him and not a slimeball is beyond me.  Thankfully.