Boyfriend of woman in Starbucks race case did not make ‘racial slur’

WRC rules that claim by ex-employee was incorrect

THE boyfriend of the IrishThai woman who was racially harassed at a Dublin Starbucks outlet was wrongly accused himself of making a “racial slur” during the incident by a witness for the Dublin cafe, it has emerged.

Craig Porter was with his girlfriend, Suchavadee Foley, at the Starbucks outlet in Tallaght on January 12, 2020, when Ms Foley was racially harassed after an employee at the coffee shop drew ‘slanty eyes’ on her cup.

This week, the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) ordered Atercin Liffey Unlimited, trading as Starbucks Tallaght, to pay Ms Foley €12,000 compensation after finding that she was racially harassed under the Equal Status Act.

Mr Baneham found that the Brazilian Starbucks employee did not intend to harass Ms Foley but the drawing “had a degrading and humiliating effect” on her.

In making the €12,000 award to Ms Foley, WRC adjudication officer Kevin Baneham said he was taking into account an “incorrect allegation“concerning the racial slur made against Mr Porter at the WRC hearing.

The allegation was made by a witness who was staff supervisor on the day of the incident.

The supervisor was no longer employed by the Starbucks company when he made the allegation at the WRC hearing on October 9 last.

Mr Baneham said the allegation made at the hearing was that Mr Porter in a racial slur called the employee a “f ****** black c***” or a “black c***”.

He said: “I find that no such slur was made” in Mr Porter’s interactions with the supervisor.

Mr Baneham said the supervisor had adopted a professional approach handling the incident and was calm when dealing with Ms Foley.

However, finding against the allegation that Mr Porter uttered the racial slur, Mr Baneham noted “the absence of any contemporaneous documentary evidence regarding the racial slur”.

He stated: “One would expect to see an incident report where there is racial abuse directed at or concerning a member of staff. There is no incident report. There is no mention of the racial slur in any of the respondent’s replies to the complainant.”

Mr Baneham also said he had regard to Mr Porter’s evidence at the hearing where he denied making the statement but accepted that he may have mentioned the employee’s race in explaining the effect the drawing had on Ms Foley.

Mr Baneham also took into account the CCTV evidence when reaching his finding that no racial slur was uttered. He said: “Taking these factors and inferences into account, I find that the complainant’s boyfriend did not use the words attributed to him.”

At the hearing, the Dublin Starbucks outlet outlined that the claim about Mr Porter making a racial slur had not been mentioned before the hearing “as it did not want to get into vulgarities”.

‘One would expect to see an incident report’