Starbucks employees protest heavy workload, working conditions

A Starbucks employee serves beverages in its limited-edition tumblers marking the company's 50th anniversary, at a Starbucks cafe in Seoul on Sept. 28, during a “reusable cup day” event. Yonhap

By Lee Hae-rin

Employees of Starbucks Korea are up in arms about their working conditions, particularly the frequent promotional events that have been increasing their workload significantly.

They said they will hold rallies calling on the company to refrain from holding such events so frequently and improve their working conditions. This protest is the first collective action by the coffee chain's workers since its launch here in 1999, and it is being planned even though the company doesn't have a union.

Starbucks Korea held a promotional event to mark the U.S. coffee chain's 50th anniversary on Sept. 28, for which it served grande-sized beverages, which are normally served in paper cups, in limited-edition plastic tumblers, for the cost of the beverages only.

The event drew customers to line up for hours at its shops across the country. According to a social media post by an event participant, one Starbucks in Seoul handed out over 650 waitlist tickets.

It took over three hours for Son Seung-hyun, 28, to receive her coffee in the reusable tumbler, after she casually dropped by a neighborhood Starbucks in Suncheon, South Jeolla Province, after she saw images of the cups posted on Instagram.

“The line was much longer than anticipated. Usually during this time of the day, around four cups are waiting at the pick-up table, more or less. I was glad to have received the free tumbler after a long wait, but felt terribly sorry for the workers who seemed extremely busy,” Son said.

After the Sept. 28 event, one employee wrote on Blind, an anonymous company review platform here, “Despite our repeated requests for better treatment, the headquarters continues to think of its workers as expendable.”

The workers have raised money to hang banners criticizing the heavy workload on Wednesday, as well as for holding demonstrations using buses displaying their demands in two Seoul locations from Thursday to Friday.

During their protests, the employees plan to demand improved working conditions, salary increases and an end to the excessive promotional events. Employees of Starbucks Korea have repeatedly requested that the company raise worker salaries, as well as hire additional staff to deal with the high workload, particularly during these promotional events when stores are overcrowded with customers.

Starbucks Korea has held these promotional events offering various limited-edition products frequently, and every time, they receive rave responses from customers, with many people buying dozens of drinks at a time just to get the promotional items, and some of them even reselling the goods on online secondhand markets.

Even many customers are siding with the workers, posting online comments sympathizing with their need for collective action.

“Every time there is an event, I can see that the workers are under great pressure due to the floods of orders. They should strike,” an internet user wrote.

“The company has held events providing free items too often,” another wrote.

In response, Starbucks Korea plans to conduct a survey and take follow-up measures to improve the employees' working conditions. “We value the important contribution that our partners make to Starbucks, and listen to any ideas and concerns that they share,” the company said in its official statement in English.

Meanwhile, Starbucks Korea is still planning to hold Halloween and Christmas seasonal promotional events, with the exact dates to be determined. Starbucks Korea has over 1,600 outlets and 18,000 employees in the country.