Ex-Starbucks manager awarded £20m in racial discrimination lawsuit
A former Starbucks manager, Shannon Phillips, has been awarded $25.6m (£20.2m) in a racial discrimination lawsuit after she was fired in connection to the arrest of two black men at a Philadelphia branch in 2018. The incident led to significant protests, while a black colleague retained his job. A jury found that race played a role in Phillips’s dismissal, contrary to anti-discrimination laws.
The federal jury in New Jersey determined that Starbucks had violated Phillips’s federal civil rights as well as a New Jersey law prohibiting race discrimination, granting her $600,000 in compensatory damages and $25m in punitive damages. The incident in question took place at a Starbucks outlet in Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia, in 2018. One of the two black men waiting there was reportedly denied access to the restroom as he had not made any purchase. The men, Rashon Nelson and Donte Robinson, claimed they were waiting for a business meeting with someone else. When the staff asked them to leave and they refused, the police were called, handcuffing the pair and escorting them out of the café.
The arrest was recorded on video and circulated online, prompting large-scale protests and Starbucks to close all 8,000 of its US locations for a day to conduct anti-bias training for employees. Phillips, who served as a regional manager, was dismissed while the black manager of the branch where the incident occurred retained his position, according to CBS. In 2019, Phillips sued Starbucks, alleging wrongful termination and accusing the company of disproportionately punishing white employees like her in connection to the arrests. Phillips’s legal team argued that Starbucks’s upper management sought a “scapegoat” to demonstrate that action was being taken.
