In a case of racial discrimination, Starbucks has been directed to pay $25.6 million to a white former manager. According to reports, the firm fired Shannon Phillips, a former manager, following an incident that happened at Starbucks in Philadelphia’s Rittenhouse Square in the year 2018.
Starbucks was found to have violated Phillips’s federal civil rights and a New Jersey law that forbids discrimination on the basis of colour by a federal jury in New Jersey, who also awarded her $600,000 in compensatory damages and $25.6 million in punitive damages. On Monday, a New Jersey jury awarded Phillips $600,000 in compensatory damages and $25 million in punitive damages after concluding that race played a significant role in her termination, in violation of both federal and state anti-discrimination laws.
In April 2018, a business manager in Philadelphia dialled 911 to report two Black men who were waiting in the coffee shop without placing an order. One of the men asked to use the loo while the others waited for a third person to come. The workers demanded that the men depart, but they refused. The staff phoned the police when they refused to leave.
Starbucks temporarily shut down 8,000 locations as a result of the incident while store managers completed training to combat “unconscious bias.” The incident sparked a large-scale outcry back then. Phillips claimed in her lawsuit that in spite of the fact that she was not even involved in the incident, the business punished her and other white employees in the Philadelphia area after it happened.
The regional manager of operations at the time, Phillips, was not involved in any arrests that took place in Philadelphia, southern New Jersey, or elsewhere. Phillips said she was fired less than a month later after objecting to the manager being placed on leave amid the uproar, according to her lawsuit.
The lawsuit claims that the firm used the claim that Black store managers were paid less than white managers as a justification for suspending the district manager, who was not in charge of the store where the arrests took place. That argument, according to Phillips, was absurd because district managers had no say in how much employees were paid.
Instead, the lawsuit claimed, Starbucks was “punishing white employees” who were local “in an effort to convince the community that it had properly responded to the incident.”
Despite having promoted the worker who contacted the police, Phillips said that the black manager of the Rittenhouse Square business received no punishment. Meanwhile Starbucks said in court documents that Phillips was let go because the Philadelphia market needed a leader who could deliver “during this time of crisis” and “Ms. Phillips failed in every aspect of that role,” and that she was punished not because of her race.
According to the reports, Phillips’ attorney Laura Mattiacci said during closing arguments that Starbucks was seeking a “sacrificial lamb” to quiet the uproar and indicate that company was taking action. Picking a Black employee for such a purpose “would have blown up in their faces,” she said.
