16-Year-Old Starbucks Barista Sues Over 'Sex Demands' at Work

[Blue_Tires]

An "alarmingly high" number of high school students are reporting sexual advances from their adult bosses and other supervisors at some of the country's best known fast food operations, according to an official of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Investigation uncovers young women getting harassed by store managers."It's an incredibly serious problem," said Bill Cash of the EEOC in an interview to be broadcast tonight on the ABC News program "20/20."

"Employers that choose to use high school kids to work have a responsibility to protect these young people," Cash said. "We don't want them to be fondled, we don't want them to be raped."

Watch "20/20" tonight at 10 p.m. for the full report.

The issue is being raised in a number of lawsuits, including cases now pending in California against Starbucks and a McDonald's franchise owner.

Kati Moore of Orange County, CA claims a 24-year old supervisor at Starbucks made almost daily demands on her for sex, months after she began working as a 16-year old barista.

"I felt like I didn't have a choice," Moore, now 20, told ABC News."I was ashamed and embarrassed. And I felt like he had complete control over my job... he knew all this stuff about my family and my friends and my school."

She says the supervisor would summon her for sex in hundreds of text messages, including one that said, "I'd liked to f--- tomorrow."

"It was an everyday, numerous times a day occurrence," Moore said. "And I just saw it and did what I had to do."

She says other Starbucks supervisors and managers knew what was happening but did nothing to stop the illicit relationship.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/teenage-starbucks-barista-sues-sex-demands-work/story?id=9631145

[rcrush]

1. not surprised at all

I've seen a lot of older guys hit on teenage girls that work with them. Its pretty creepy.

[Ian David]

2. Wanna go to Starbucks to...

[Xithras]

3. Not new.

When I was a teen and worked at Taco Bell & Jack In The Box (decades ago), it was an open secret that the female crew members could get better hours by sleeping with their shift managers. Those shift managers would be fired if caught, but few people talked about it. Even if they were caught, most of the managers were only paid slightly more than the minimum wage workers they were supervising, so they didn't care much. It wasn't a career, but just something to do until something better came along.

The problem stems from the fact that you have store "managers" and "supervisors" who are generally 18-22 years old themselves and have little sense of responsibility or experience in the real world, and are generally thin on education. They're managing people in roughly their own age bracket, who themselves have little experience in these things and generally don't understand what their rights are. It's a situation ripe for abuse. Nobody reads those posters by the back door.

[girl gone mad]

6. They don't know their rights..

they don't understand the value of their labor, and a lot of them have been raised in authoritarian households and haven't yet developed a sense of personal worth and self-preservation. Easy targets.

[JBoy]

4. Asshole supervisors. Should stick to fappucinos.

[MineralMan]

11. DUZY!

[Hello_Kitty]

5. I was hit on by managers constantly when I was 16 and working in fast food.

It was disgusting. Glad people are suing now and I hope they win big.

[MineralMan]

9. My sister got seriously hit on when she worked for a fast food

place back in 1962. She told our father. He "spoke" to the manager who had done it. Never happened again. I'm not sure what he "said" to the guy, but it apparently worked very well and the guy never came back to work. Our father knew the owner of the place very well, and I imagine he spoke to him, too.

[leftstreet]

7. Why are so many of the managers/supervisors males?

Interesting

[Mari333]

8. sexism pure and simple

I see it at most FF places, male managers with females as lowest staff.
still exists.
hope they win huge lawsuits.

[Hello_Kitty]

10. Yup. Males are far more likely to be promoted from server to management.

Even when they are greatly outnumbered by females with more experience.

[quiet.american]

12. Horrible, horrible, horrible. 'NOW' on PBS was way ahead of the curve on this.

Last year, they did an excellent segment. Glad it's being taken up in the "mainstream."