Starbucks ordered to pay $25m to ex-employee in racial discrimination case

Starbucks has been ordered to pay a white ex-employee $25.6m in a racial discrimination case. Shannon Phillips, a former manager, was fired after two black men were arrested at a Starbucks Philadelphia branch in 2018, leading to large protests. A federal jury in New Jersey found that Starbucks had violated Ms Phillips's federal civil rights, as well as a New Jersey law that prohibits discrimination based on race, awarding her $600,000 in compensatory damages and $25m in punitive damages. The incident occurred at a Starbucks branch in Philadelphia's Rittenhouse Square in 2018, when one of two black men waiting in the shop was reportedly denied permission to use the toilet because he had not bought anything. Her lawyers argued that the upper management of Starbucks were "Looking for a 'scapegoat' to terminate to show action was being taken".

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