CAMMDEN, N.J. (AP) — A judge has ordered Starbucks to pay an additional $2.7 million in lost wages and tax damages to a former regional manager who earlier received more than $25 million After alleging that she and other white workers were unjustly punished High-profile arrests Two black men in store 2018.
In June, Shannon Phillips won $600,000 in compensatory damages and $25 million in punitive damages after a New Jersey jury found that race was a determining factor in Phillips’ firing, in violation of federal and state anti-discrimination laws.
Philadelphia Inquirer reports A US district judge on Wednesday ordered Starbucks to pay Phillips another $2.73 million in past and future earnings and benefits plus compensation for tax damages due to the lump sum, according to court documents. The company disputed any payment, saying that Philippe had not demonstrated that she could not earn the same amount or more in the future.
In April 2018, a Philadelphia store manager called police on two black men who were sitting in a coffee shop without ordering anything. Rashawn Nelson and Donte Robinson were later released without charge.
Phillips, then regional director of operations in Philadelphia, southern New Jersey, and elsewhere, was not implicated in the arrests. However, she said she was ordered to place a white manager who was also not on administrative leave for reasons she knew were wrong, according to her lawsuit.
Phillips, 52, said she was fired less than a month after she objected to the manager being put on leave amid the uproar, according to her lawsuit.
The company’s justification for suspending the district manager, who was not responsible for the store where the arrests took place, was to claim that Black store managers were paid less than White managers, according to the lawsuit. Phillips said that argument doesn’t make sense because district managers have no input on employee salaries.
The lawsuit alleged that Starbucks instead took steps to “punish white employees” who worked in the area “in an effort to convince the community that it had properly responded to the incident.”
Starbucks’ attorneys alleged that Phillips was fired because the company needed stronger leadership in the wake of the arrests.
Starbucks is seeking a new trial, arguing that jurors were allowed to stay despite expressing negative opinions about the company, that incorrect information in witness testimony “poisoned the well,” and that Phillips should not be awarded “double damages” in all of the allegations The Enquirer reported. government and federal.
Meanwhile, Phillips’ lawyers also want to order Starbucks to pay $1.4 million in legal fees from 2018 to 2023.
The video of the arrest sparked a national outrage, and the company later I reached a settlement with both men in return for an undisclosed amount and an offer of a free college education.
The two men reached an agreement with the city of Philadelphia for a symbolic dollar each and a promise from officials to set up a $200,000 program for young entrepreneurs. The Philadelphia Police Department has adopted a new policy on how to handle people accused of trespassing on private property — warning companies not to abuse police officers’ power.
