(Reuters) – Whole Foods Market Inc was sued on Monday by employees who accused the upscale grocery retailer of disciplining and retaliating against workers who wear “Black Lives Matter” face masks on the job, including one who said she was fired.
The proposed nationwide class action accused Whole Foods, a unit of Amazon.com Inc, of sending employees home without pay or threatening to fire them for wearing the masks, on the ground it violated the company’s dress code, even as it let workers conveying other messages continue doing so.
One plaintiff, Savannah Kinzer, said she was fired on Saturday after organizing co-workers to wear Black Lives Matter masks and protest Whole Foods’ discipline.
“Many companies are making enthusiastic statements about how they support Black Lives Matter and protests that have shaken up the country,” Shannon Liss-Riordan, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said in an interview. “Whole Foods and Amazon have portrayed themselves as champions of racial justice, but when their employees try to speak out, they get muzzled.”
A Whole Foods spokeswoman declined to discuss the lawsuit, but said workers are banned from wearing “visible slogans, messages, logos or advertising” not related to the company. She also said Kinzer was fired for reasons unrelated to the masks.
The 14 plaintiffs include Whole Foods employees in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, California and Washington state, and come from several racial and ethnic backgrounds.
They want an injunction to stop Whole Foods from banning workers from wearing Black Lives Matter masks and apparel, and damages for workers sent home without pay or otherwise punished.
The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Boston.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
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