Starbucks Coffee Japan Ltd. plans to make all its 800 contract employees permanent workers on April 1 as part of efforts to improve the quality of its services, company officials said Thursday.
The salaries of the contract workers are expected to increase after their promotion as they will get seasonal bonuses, the officials said.
"By allowing contract staff to have a clear future path, we hope service levels at outlets will be improved," one of the officials said.
The coffee chain operator currently has some 1,800 permanent workers in Japan. Permanent workers serve as store managers of each of the chain's 1,000 or so outlets nationwide.