Starbucks has been ordered to pay tens of millions of dollars to a former regional manager who sued the company for wrongful termination and said she was fired because she is white.
The former employee, Shannon Phillips, said in a 2019 complaint she became a scapegoat in the company’s damage control efforts after a viral video showed two Black men being arrested at one of its Philadelphia shops, sparking outrage across the country and leading the corporate behemoth to temporarily close down its operations to conduct an anti-bias training.
After a six-day trial, a unanimous federal jury in New Jersey on Monday awarded Phillips $25.6 million, including $25 million for punitive damages and $600,000 in compensatory damages, according to Console Mattiacci Law, which represents Phillips.
