Veteran coffee company Starbucks has been ordered by a New Jersey federal judge to pay additional damages of Rs 22.45 crore to a former employee in an old 2019 case. Earlier, a federal judge ordered Starbucks to pay $213 million in damages to Shannon Phillips, the company's former regional manager in Philadelphia.
In 2018, the company fired Shannon Phillips after a dispute. After which in 2019, Shannon filed a complaint against the company alleging that she was fired because of her fair complexion.
Actually, the matter dates back to the year 2018, when two African-American citizens named Nelson and Robinson were arrested from the cafe.
The two citizens said that they had come to the cafe for a business meeting and were waiting for a third person. During this, there was a dispute over refusing to use the bathroom of the cafe and the matter escalated. After which the employees informed the police. Then the police arrested both of them.
After this, demonstrations started in the entire area, due to which Starbucks had to close that store. A month after the case, Starbucks' Philadelphia regional manager, Shannon Phillips, was fired after 13 years in the job. Whereas, she was neither present at the time of arrest of both the people nor did she have any hand in that matter.
After this, Philips filed a wrongful termination complaint against the company in the year 2019. In the complaint, Shannon stated that he was fired from his job because of his race and white complexion.
At the same time, in this case, Laura C. Mattiasi, a lawyer for Philips, said that after the arrest of African-American citizens, the company had made her client a 'scapegoat' to show its actions.
