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Starbucks ordered to pay $2.7M more to former Philly-area manager who said she was fired for being white

Starbucks must pay a former Philadelphia-area manager — who was awarded a $25.6 million verdict after a jury determined she was fired in 2018 for being white — an additional $2.7 million, a federal judge has ruled.

In addition to the $25.6 million in damages awarded in June by a federal jury sitting in Camden, Starbucks must also pay Shannon Phillips $2,736,755 in pay and tax damages, U.S. District Judge Joel H. Slomsky ordered Wednesday.

Phillips was fired soon after the arrests of two Black men at a Philadelphia store was caught on a video that went viral. The arrests prompted national uproar; protests at the Center City location; policy changes; apologies from Starbucks; and questions over racism, policing, and public safety.

Phillips sued Starbucks in 2019, arguing that as a regional operations director, she had nothing to do with the arrests of the men at the store at 18th and Spruce Streets, and was fired less than a month later for refusing to place a white district manager at another store on leave over claims of racism in pay that Phillips said she knew to be untrue.

Her lawyer, Laura C. Mattiacci, later said Phillips was a “scapegoat” to “show action being taken” following the furor over the episode. Starbucks’ lawyers, meanwhile, argued that Phillips was not let go because of her race, but because she “failed to lead” her team in the aftermath of the arrests.

Mattiacci declined to comment on the order Wednesday. A Starbucks spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment.

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