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An Irish woman of Thai heritage will receive compensation from Starbucks in Dublin after she complained of being racially abused by one of its staff.

According to the BBC, Suchavadee Foley was trying to order a matcha tea latte on Jan. 12, 2020, when the employee drew a smiley face with "slanty" eyes on the cup instead of writing her name.

Ireland's Workplace Relations Commission found that Foley was racially harassed and ordered Atercin Liffey Unlimited — which trades as Starbucks Tallaght — to pay her €12,000 (S$19,268).

Drawing made her uncomfortable and nervous

The Irish Times reported adjudication officer Kevin Baneham as saying that the drawing made a clear reference to race, and was "offensive" and "unimaginative".

Baneham said that Foley had been spelling out her name while putting in her order.

However, the employee interrupted her and improvised a visual representation of Foley instead.

While Baneham found that the employee had not intended to harass Foley, he concluded that the drawing "had a degrading and humiliating effect", reported The Irish Times.

Foley — who moved to Ireland from Thailand when she was five or six years old — said she was "shocked and nervous" after the incident and asked her boyfriend to collect the drink on her behalf as she felt uncomfortable.

Her boyfriend spoke to a supervisor at the coffeehouse, who apologised for the incident.

Thought Foley was "glamorous"

According to the BBC, the employee in question, who is from Brazil, said she had drawn a smiley face on the cup "as she thought the complainant was glamorous".

She had been working at the Starbucks for about a month, and after the incident no longer drew on the cups unless children specifically requested it.

The BBC quoted a spokesperson from Starbucks as saying the company was "deeply sorry" and had no tolerance for racial discrimination.

The spokeswoman said, "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 take place again."

Top image from Sorin Sîrbu via Unsplash

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