Do Starbucks workers have to wear masks? At a Miami hospital store, they weren’t
Employees at a Starbucks on the Jackson Memorial Hospital campus have been observed working without masks.
A University of Miami doctor says she spotted the mask-less workers around 8:15 a.m. Friday at the Starbucks at 901 NW 17th St., near the entrance to Ryder Trauma Center.
Another customer took photos at the store at around 12:30 p.m. that showed some employees wearing masks that only partially covered their faces. Their mouths were covered but their noses were exposed.
The JMH store is run by a company that contracts with Starbucks.
“I just find it a bit shocking especially right now and especially at a hospital,” the doctor, who did not want to be identified, told the Miami Herald.
When the doctor asked why employees weren’t wearing masks, the manager told her that they cause claustrophobia. The manager, who the doctor said had the mask hanging around his neck, later denied that his employees weren’t wearing them in a conversation with a Miami Herald reporter.
A Miami-Dade executive order on April 9 requires all “persons working in or visiting” restaurants in the county to wear facial coverings. The coverings must conceal “the face and the mouth,” according to the government mandate.
Starbucks also has made wearing masks company policy, according to its website.
JFC Miami Management Holdings, a food and beverage operator where the Miami Heat’s Udonis Haslem is a partner, runs the Jackson campus Starbucks. Haslem has been a strong advocate of following public health advice during the coronavirus pandemic, even writing an essay in The Players’ Tribune that was reprinted in the Miami Herald.
In a statement to the Miami Herald, JFC managing partner Ramona Hall said her company’s Starbucks “strictly” follows all the necessary guidelines.
“As a licensed store, our Starbucks located on Jackson Memorial Hospital’s campus abides by the Starbucks corporate mandate, which requires all employees to wear facial coverings during their shifts,” Hall said.
Inquiries to the Starbucks national office were not immediately returned.
This story was originally published May 8, 2020 at 4:40 PM.
