Starbucks &

Ethics

STARBUCKS AND ETHICS

• CEO had a pay raise by 25% in 2009,

a year in which the company reduced its work force by 19%

• Starbucks refused for six years to give into pressure from campaigners to ban the genetically engineered artificial ‘recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone’ from its dairy supply chain .

• Providing the Guantanamo Bay prison camp with Starbucks coffee kiosks

Starbucks hasn’t paid a penny in tax for three years

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Some of the stories behind Starbuck’s negative scores

WORKFORCE SECURITY • The US National Lawyers Guild accuses Starbucks of a “relentless and

illegal anti-union campaign” and “retaliatory firing” of union organizers .

• According to the Starbucks Workers Union it provides US staff with worse health care coverage

• A US court ordered the company to pay more than $100 million into the accounts of its low wage staff in California after ruling that it had improperly required the workers to share tips with their bosses

FAIR TRADE COFFEE

Is It Really Fair?

CONCLUSIONEthics are important for managing a sustainable business mainly because of

the serious consequences that can result from decisions made with a lack of regard to ethics. A lack of ethics leads to a wealth of problems for a business

• Legal Issues

• Employee Performance

• Employee Relations

• Company Credibility

• http://www.ethicalconsumer.org/mediainfo/pressreleases/mediareleasecoffeeshops.aspx

• www.nlg.org/news/statements/StarbucksUnion2006.htm 

• http://www.starbucksunion.org/news/faced-growing-uproar-starbucks-settles-sixth-labor-complaint