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A Dublin Starbucks store was ordered to pay € 12,000 compensation to an Irish customer with Thai heritage after an employee drew what was mentioned. in an audience like ‘slanted’ eyes in the woman’s cup.
In the case, Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) adjudicating officer Kevin Baneham ordered Atercin Liffey to have unlimited trading like Starbucks Tallaght pay Suchavadee Foley € 12,000 after discovering that Ms. Foley was racially harassed under the Equal Status Act when she attended the store on January 12, 2020..
In his findings, Mr. Baneham stated that it is not disputed that a Starbucks employee drew the image of a smile and what was referred to in the audience as ‘slanted’ eyes on the mug as a way to mark it as the mug of the Mrs. Foley.
Mr. Baneham stated that Ms. Foley “has a Thai-Irish heritage and it is clear that the visual representation relates to her race. It is as offensive and unimaginative as a 19th century cartoon of Punch.”
Mr. Baneham stated that the drawing is “clearly a reference to race”.
He stated: “Instead of her name, a physical descriptor was used, in this case her eyes. This was not a drawing of the complainant, but a sketch of a part of her and one clearly associated with race.”
Mr. Baneham claimed that Ms. Foley, while placing her request, began to spell her name and was interrupted by the clerk, who improvised a physical representation of Ms. Foley, who did not request this.
Mr. Baneham discovered that the employee did not intend to harass Ms. Foley, but it is clear that the drawing “had a demeaning and humiliating effect” on Ms. Foley.
Mr. Baneham stated that the Starbucks firm did not take reasonably practical steps to prevent the act of harassment and is vicariously liable.
The Starbucks media at the hearing had denied that what happened was a racist incident.
Mr. Baneham described Ms. Foley’s account of what he called the impact of the racist incident on her as “compelling.”
In her evidence, Ms Foley told the WRC hearing that she was “shocked and nervous” after the Starbucks employee showed her the latte mug with the drawing as a way to identify it for her coffee collection. Milky.
Ms. Foley said in the hearing that she was too uncomfortable to pick up the mug and her boyfriend returned to the counter to pick it up.
Ms. Foley said in the hearing that she was offended that this incident demoted her. He said that he had been the victim of racial abuse and that this was not a friendly event.
Ms Foley told the audience that she is Irish and that she and her parents moved to Ireland from Thailand when she was five or six years old.
Ms. Foley said at the hearing that she doesn’t like confrontation and that after receiving the cup of latte, her boyfriend came up to the counter and spoke to the supervisor, who came to apologize.
The supervisor offered vouchers, but Mrs. Foley did not want them.
A legal representative for the Starbucks store told Ms Foley that an American gang called ‘Slants’ had tried to reappropriate the representation of the eyes in the same way that ‘queer’ had been reappropriated by the LGBT community.
In response, Ms. Foley said that she wanted her name to be marked on the mug and not a representation of eyes, as the clerk would call it.
The Brazilian Starbucks employee explained to the audience that she drew a smiling face when she thought Ms. Foley was glamorous.
The employee stated that she does not draw on cups now, unless it is for a child looking for “happy birthday” or a birthday related drawing on the cup.
The employee had only been on the job for a month at the time and said she initially did not understand what had caused the offense.
The Sao Paulo native told the audience that she was very sorry and had not thought that Ms. Foley would not like it.
The worker said that she had tried to make the cup easy for Ms. Foley to identify. She said that her training had trained her to be “nice.”
In his findings, Mr. Baneham stated that he accepted the good faith of the employee’s evidence.
Mr. Baneham stated: “He apologized to the complainant and did not intend to humiliate her or make her feel uncomfortable … I fully accept that this was a mistake on her part and that she regrets. I accept, therefore, that it was not the employee’s intention to harass the complainant. “
A legal representative for the Starbucks store requested that the decision be anonymized due to the disproportionate impact it could have on the business, but Baneham rejected this request stating that there is no basis to anonymize the decision.
A Starbucks spokeswoman said today: “We deeply regret that this incident took place and we do not tolerate discrimination of any kind at Starbucks.
“We accept the adjudicator’s conclusion that our partner did not intend to harass this customer and we have retrained the team at this store to ensure this does not happen again.”
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