White starbucks manager awarded $25.6 million for racial discrimination
CAMDEN, N.J. (AP) — Jurors in a federal court in New Jersey have awarded $25.6 million to a former regional Starbucks manager who alleged that she and other white employees were unfairly punished by the coffee chain after the high-profile 2018 arrests of two Black men at one of the chain's Philadelphia locations.
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 have no input on employee salaries.
The lawsuit alleged Starbucks was instead taking 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."
During closing arguments on Friday, Phillips' lawyer Laura Mattiacci told jurors that the company was looking for a “sacrificial lamb” to calm the outrage and show that it was taking action, Law360 reported. Picking a Black employee for such a purpose "would have blown up in their faces,” she said.
Starbucks denied Phillips' allegations, saying the company needed someone with a track record of “strength and resolution” during a crisis and replaced her with a regional manager who had such experience, including navigating the aftermath of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings, Law360 reported.
Phillips' attorney, however, cited earlier testimony from a Black district manager, who was responsible for the store where the arrests took place, who described Phillips as someone beloved by her peers and worked around the clock in the wake of the arrests.