Starbucks fired supervisor ‘as a result of she was white,’ lawsuit claims in wake of notorious Philadelphia retailer arrest of two black males

A former regional supervisor has sued Starbucks for racial discrimination, claiming she was fired as a result of she was white after two black males had been arrested for “trespassing” at a Philadelphia location she oversaw.

Shannon Phillips, a 13-year Starbucks worker, has sued the chain, alleging she was fired for being white after video of a seemingly racially-biased arrest at one of many shops she managed went viral and triggered mass outrage in opposition to the espresso behemoth. If she was not white, Phillips charged within the swimsuit filed within the US District Court docket of New Jersey earlier this week, she would nonetheless have her job, having obtained constructive efficiency evaluations and merit-based bonuses up till the month of the arrest.

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Phillips was not current on the Rittenhouse Sq. Starbucks on April 12, 2018, when one of many workers referred to as the police to report “trespassing” by two black males who had entered the shop with out shopping for something. Nor was she there when the boys had been marched out of the shop in handcuffs. Video of the boys’s arrest went viral and triggered a profuse apology from the espresso behemoth, which not solely didn’t press costs however shuttered some eight,000 shops to place workers by means of a crash course in racial sensitivity. However she was punished for it regardless, she claimed.

After the fateful incident infected racial tensions throughout the nation, Phillips mentioned she “instantly took steps to be taught further details about the occasions” and “be sure that the retail places inside her space had been a protected and welcoming surroundings for all prospects, no matter race.” She even organized alternative employees for some Philadelphia places when the common hourly workers had been afraid to return to work. However a month later, Starbucks was nonetheless struggling “to persuade the neighborhood that it had correctly responded to the incident.” Heads needed to roll if neighborhood relations had been to be repaired.

The chain didn’t fireplace the (black) supervisor overseeing the worker who had referred to as the cops, but it surely did request Phillips droop the white district supervisor after non-white managers at his shops complained they had been being paid lower than their white counterparts, she mentioned. She refused, insisting the supervisor was “not racist” and reminding her supervisors that it wasn’t his job to set salaries anyway. She was subsequently fired and instructed “the state of affairs shouldn’t be recoverable.”

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Phillips is searching for unspecified compensation for her “emotional upset, psychological anguish, humiliation, and lack of life’s pleasures” in addition to punitive damages. A Starbucks spokesperson dismissed her claims, denying there was any benefit to the swimsuit. 

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