A ransomware attack on the supply chain software company Blue Yonder has left Starbucks baristas unable to check their schedules or manage hours, the company said on Monday.
The Seattle-based coffee giant is one of dozens of companies affected by the outage, including supermarket brands in the U.S. and UK, various retailers as well as food and beverage manufacturers.
Blue Yonder last week blamed disruptions in its services on a “ransomware incident.” The company said in subsequent updates that the investigation was ongoing and that it was “working around the clock” to restore services.
At Starbucks, the incident has affected a software program that enables employees, which the company calls “partners,” to manage their schedule. The program also enables Starbucks to track the number of hours employees work.
Jaci Anderson, director of corporate communications with the company, said in an email that Starbucks is working with store leaders and partners on how to work around the outage manually. The company said that it will ensure employees are paid for all hours worked.
She also said that the incident is not affecting the way customers are served inside stores.
Employees have been complaining for days about the system being down, but those complaints reached a fever pitch more recently as workers worried about pay. The company apparently told workers that they would be paid for hours scheduled and that discrepancies would be made up at a later date, according to social media posts.
But it’s the latest headache to hit Starbucks, which has dealt with a host of issues over the past year, including protests over U.S. Middle East policy, competition in China and suddenly weak sales in the U.S. that led to a change in management.
This is also not the first time that a global outage hit some of the chain’s key functions. In July, the company’s mobile order and pay function was down for days following a tech glitch by the cybersecurity company Crowdstrike that affected Microsoft software.
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