Starbucks Gets Sued by the Feds for Firing Worker with Dwarfism

Categories: News
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Reuters reports that Starbucks has been slapped by a lawsuit from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for firing a barista-in-training with dwarfism in El Paso, Texas. The barista was terminated because she asked for a stool or a small stepladder to perform her job.

The feds argue that this violates the Americans With Disabilities Act, which says that employers cannot ignore a request for "a reasonable accommodation by a qualified individual with a disability."

The El Paso Times quoted the Starbucks spokeswoman, Stacey Krum, saying that the company has "zero tolerance" for worker discrimination, adding, "We definitely want to make clear how seriously we take the concerns that have been raised in the lawsuit."

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9 comments
FishWithoutBicycle
FishWithoutBicycle

Most of the commentary here consists of immature puns/jokes meant to poke fun at the woman being discriminated against. Shouldn't we be focusing our wrath on the manager/store who agreed to employ the girl and then turned around and fired her because she asked for reasonable accommodations to perform the job she was employed to do?

Leorale
Leorale

Yeah, I don't know what's up with that.

I work at a Starbucks, and one of our baristas has dwarfism, and she can do everything!  A step stool is a very easy and reasonable accomodation, which allows our barista to contribute in every way.  That manager is missing out on a perfectly capable employee, and seriously needs to pull his/her head out of his/her butt.

Mr. Rosewater
Mr. Rosewater

Everyone needs to grow up.

JB
JB

Pun not intended.....

JB
JB

And hey, wasn't one of Snow White's friends named "Skinny" [Latte] LMFAO

*sorry it's the Venti Pike talking

JB
JB

Actually, they did introduce those "Petite" bite things, so that El Paso outpost could have been a prototype for a profitable "Willy Wonka" concept, after all.....

JB
JB

Well, what do you expect from a place where the drink sizes start at "Tall" LMFAO

Bucky Fuller
Bucky Fuller

So you "likers" enjoy a (very) modest joke that ends with the humorist clapping himself on the back? Did you hear the one about about the chicken who crossed the road to see the farmer's daughter and her three-legged pig?! LMFAO

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