Starbucks ordered to pay additional $2.7 million to employee fired for being white

Starbucks found itself in the midst of a racism row in 2018

Starbucks has been ordered to pay an additional $2.7 million to a former employee who claims she was fired for being white. Shannon Phillips will receive $2.7 million to cover her legal fees in addition to the $25 million she has already been awarded in her wrongful termination suit.

Phillips — a regional manager at Starbucks who oversaw several locations across New Jersey and Pennsylvania – claims that her race played a hand in her termination. She sued the coffee chain in 2019 – a few months after she was fired from her job.

The long-drawn saga began when two black men were denied access to a washroom at a Starbucks location in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 2018. Rashon Nelson and Donte Robinson were told that they could not use the washroom as they had not bought anything and the facilities were only for the use of paying customers.

Nelson and Robinson refused to leave the coffee shop and sat down at a table, waiting for a business meeting, according to an ABC News report. They were arrested by the police for trespassing after an employee called 911 – sparking a racial firestorm with Starbucks at its centre.

The arrests led to nationwide protests and Starbucks even closed some of its outlets for a day so its staff could undergo racial bias training.

About a month after the arrests, Phillips was told she was being sacked from her job of 13 years, despite the fact that she wasn’t present at the store when the incident occurred and wasn’t involved in the arrests.

The reason Starbucks gave for the termination was a vague “the situation is not recoverable.” Phillips in her lawsuit claimed that she was made a scapegoat. Starbucks “took steps to punish white employees who had not been involved in the arrests, but who worked in and around the city of Philadelphia, in an effort to convince the community that it had properly responded to the incident,” the complaint said.

According to the New York Post, it was also revealed during the trial that another Philadelphia manager, who is black, was not fired.

Nelson and Robinson reached a private settlement with Starbucks and the city of Philadelphia after the arrests.