A Starbucks regional manager who was awarded $25.6 million for wrongful termination after claiming she was fired for being white has just raked in millions more in lost wages.
A judge has just ordered an additional $2.7 million to be paid to Shannon Phillips who won $600,000 in compensatory damages and $25 million in punitive damages when a New Jersey jury found Starbucks violated federal and state anti-discrimination laws, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. The initial award came in June.
Starbucks is opposing the payment asserting that Phillips had not proven she couldn’t have earned the same or more in the future, according to court documents.
In April 2018, a Philadelphia store manager called the police on two black men who were sitting at a table in Starbucks and were not ordering anything. Rashon Nelson and Donte Robinson were later released without charges and it caused a major uproar in the media.
“Phillips, then regional manager of operations in Philadelphia, southern New Jersey, and elsewhere, was not involved with arrests. However, she said she was ordered to put a white manager who also wasn’t involved on administrative leave for reasons she knew were false, according to her lawsuit,” NBC News reported.
Phillips was terminated less than a month later after pushing back against the order according to the lawsuit.
“The company’s rationale for suspending the district manager, who was not responsible for the store where the arrests took place, was an allegation that Black store managers were being paid less than white managers, according to the lawsuit. Phillips said that argument made no sense since district managers had no input on employee salaries,” NBC News continued.
The lawsuit charged that Starbucks was going out of its way to “punish white employees” who worked in the region “in an effort to convince the community that it had properly responded to the incident.”
(Video Credit: NBC News)
Starbucks attorneys countered with the specious argument that Phillips was booted because the company needed stronger leadership after the incident.
“Starbucks is seeking a new trial, arguing that jurors were allowed to remain despite having expressed negative opinions about the company, that incorrect information in witness testimony ‘poisoned the well,’ and that Phillips should not have been awarded ‘double damages’ on both the state and federal allegations,” The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
Phillips’ attorneys are also seeking for the judge to force Starbucks to pay them $1.4 million in legal fees accrued between 2018 and 2023.
(Video Credit: The Guardian)
As the video of the arrest of the two black men went viral, the company bowed to pressure and reached a settlement with them for an undisclosed sum and an offer of a free college education.
“The two men reached a deal with the city of Philadelphia for a symbolic $1 each and a promise from officials to set up a $200,000 program for young entrepreneurs. The Philadelphia Police Department adopted a new policy on how to deal with people accused of trespassing on private property — warning businesses against misusing the authority of police officers,” NBC News wrote.
It should be noted that many retail establishments require that you purchase something if you are going to sit there taking up paying customers’ seats. If someone won’t leave after repeatedly being asked, being arrested is not uncommon.
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