A white Starbucks manager who was fired after two black men were refused access to a Philadelphia store bathroom was awarded $2.7 million, in an unanimous verdict, to cover the legal fees associated with her wrongful termination lawsuit. The 2018 incident made International news as an example of systematic racism.
Shannon Phillips claimed she was used as a ‘scapegoat’ by Starbucks after she was fired when the coffee chain found itself at the centre of racial controversy when two black men were arrested on the premises of a cafe in Philadelphia in 2018. At the time, the Philadelphia Police Commissioner said that officers arrived and asked the gentlemen to leave the premises several times but they refused.
It comes after Ms Phillips won her lawsuit against the coffee giant in June and was handed $25 million in punitive damages and $600,000 in compensatory damages.
The saga unfolded when an employee at Starbucks’ Rittenhouse Square location in Philadelphia called 911 on April 12, 2018, after two black men — Rashon Nelson and Donte Robinson — were denied access to the bathroom because they weren’t paying customers.
The arrests – which Ms Phillips was not involved with – prompted widespread outrage and protests after footage of the incident emerged – and Starbucks was accused of racism and boycott threats.
Ms Phillips, who oversaw the location as well as about 100 others and would have been paid up to $200,000, was quickly fired but in 2019 sued the coffee chain claiming it was due to racial bias.
In the lawsuit, Ms Phillips – who worked for Starbucks for 13 years – claimed she had nothing to do with the arrests but was still fired from her job a month later.
The arrests sparked protests and prompted more than 8,000 locations to shut so the company’s 175,000 employees could undergo racial-bias training.
