Whole Foods Class Action Lawsuit Says Employees Not Allowed to Wear BLM Masks

UPDATE 3: On Oct. 5, 2020, Whole Foods’ parent company Amazon.com said a Massachusetts federal judge cannot consider the race of a Black plaintiff who alleges she was sent home from work for wearing a Black Lives Matter mask because the employee did not mention her race in her racial bias complaint.

UPDATE 2: On Aug. 11, 2020, Whole Foods employees fired back against the food chain’s attempt to squash their civil rights class action lawsuit.

UPDATE: On Aug. 4, 2020, Whole Foods Market says employees’ Black Lives Matter face masks violate the company’s dress code, which bars them from wearing clothing with slogans or messages while at work.

A group of Whole Foods employees filed a class action lawsuit saying their employer prevented them from wearing “Black Lives Matter” face masks.

The Whole Foods face masks class action lawsuit was filed by workers at Whole Foods locations in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, California, and Washington. They claim they all had similar experiences when they attempted to show their support for the Black Lives Matter movement.

Allegedly, they were told to not wear masks that read “Black Lives Matter,” and many were disciplined for doing so. In their eyes, this represents a violation of their civil rights. Multiple sources have reported on this legal news, including C Net and B News. 

The Whole Foods BLM masks class action lawsuit asserts that Whole Foods and parent company Amazon publicly express support for the Black Lives Matter movement. However, the company allegedly prevents workers from doing the same. According to the workers, Whole Foods disciplined employees for wearing Black Lives Matter masks in a range of ways. 

Discipline included sending employees home without pay for wearing the masks, and even threatening to fire the employees for wearing the masks. In some instances, workers were given disciplinary “points” for wearing the apparel. The workers explain that at some Whole Foods locations, these points put workers at risk for losing their jobs. 

Plaintiff Savannah Kinzer describes her experience with this discipline, asserting she was fired on Sat., July 18, 2020 both for wearing a Black Lives Matter mask herself, and for her role organizing other workers to wear the masks. She says that her being fired was also a response to her efforts to protest Whole Foods’ choice to discipline workers who wore the Black Lives Matter masks.

The plaintiffs assert that technically, the Whole Foods dress code prohibits employees from wearing clothing bearing visible slogans, messages, logos, or advertising that are not related to the company. However, this policy has been rarely enforced, according to the workers. Either the company makes a habit of looking the other way, or only informs the employees of the dress code without disciplining them, they state.

The workers provide background to their Whole Foods BLM masks class action lawsuit, noting that in light of the coronavirus pandemic, they are required to wear masks to work. Allegedly, many employees wear masks that bear different images or slogans. They provide the example that one worker wore a SpongeBob mask and was not disciplined. Other workers even wore masks promoting social causes, and were supposedly not disciplined. Multiple workers have come to work wearing pro-LTBTQ masks or those advertising Pride, and were not disciplined, they recount.

Despite this usually lax approach to the dress code, Whole Foods allegedly took a much stricter method of enforcement when it came to those workers who wore Black Lives Matter masks.

In the eyes of the workers, this discriminatory approach to enforcing the company dress code represents a violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1963. They allege that Whole Foods’ actions discriminate against Black employees and others who support the Black Lives Matter community, saying the company prevented the workers from protesting racism in their workplace by wearing their Black Lives Matter masks. Additionally, the workers assert that the company’s retaliation against workers who sought to fight racism in the workplace represented a violation of the Civil Rights Act, and Title VII.

In their Whole Foods BLM retaliation class action lawsuit, the workers seek to represent a Class of all similarly affected Whole Foods employees across the Untied States who have been subjected to Whole Foods’ “discriminatory and retaliatory” policy of not allowing employees to wear Black Lives Matter masks at work.

The workers seek damages on behalf of themselves and others, including back pay for those workers who were sent home without pay, and a requirement of Whole Foods to clear the disciplinary action from the records of affected employees.

They also seek for Kinzer to be given her job back, and ask the court to instate both a preliminary and permanent injunction requiring Whole Foods to end its supposedly discriminatory policy of not allowing its workers to wear Black Lives Matter masks on the job.

Did your workplace discriminate against employee activism? Share your experiences in the comments section below.

The Whole Foods employees are represented by Shannon Liss-Riordan and Anastasia Doherty of Lichten & Liss-Riordan PC.

The Whole Foods Black Lives Matter Masks Class Action Lawsuit is Suverino Frith, et al. v. Whole Foods Market Inc., Case No. 1:20-cv-11358, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. 

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