Starbucks is under fire in Massachusetts, facing a putative class action lawsuit that accuses the coffee giant of ignoring a state law requiring employers to disclose that lie detector tests cannot be used in hiring decisions.
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in state court by Nicholas Paulo, a resident of Lynn, Massachusetts, alleges that Starbucks failed to provide the legally mandated notice on its job applications. Paulo, who applied for a managerial role at a Swampscott Starbucks, claims that neither he nor other job seekers received the necessary warning about polygraph testing prohibitions under state law.
Paulo now seeks to represent an estimated thousands of Massachusetts job applicants in a class action that could leave Starbucks on the hook for significant damages.
1985 Law At Center Of The Legal Battle
The lawsuit hinges on a 1985 Massachusetts law requiring that all employment applications explicitly inform job seekers that it is illegal for an employer to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment.
