Coffee giant Starbucks has had to shell out a $25.6 million payout to a woman who accuses the company of firing her because she is white.
A New Jersey federal jury decided in favor of employee Shannon Phillips, who was fired in 2019, and who claims that she was a victim of racial bias and discrimination.
Per Fox News:
It took the eight-member panel nearly five hours to award $25 million in punitive damages and $600,000 in compensatory damages to Phillips, determining that her skin color played a decisive role in her termination.
Phillips, who worked for Starbucks for 13 years and oversaw roughly 100 cafes, was fired less than a month after Donte Robinson and Rashon Nelson were arrested at a Spruce Street store on April 12, 2018, for refusing to leave a table.
The incident, captured on cellphone video, quickly went viral and Starbucks faced intense scrutiny for the treatment of the Black men, who said they were waiting for a business associate and hadn’t ordered anything when a manager called the Philadelphia police on them. Phillips was not present.
Starbucks argued that she lacked the leadership abilities in a “time of crises.”
But the jury disagreed.
They fired her because she is white, as far as the jury is concerned.
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