Amazon-owned Whole Foods cracked down on staff wearing 'Black Lives Matter' apparel, class-action lawsuit claims

More than 12 workers at Whole Foods stores in 4 different U.S. states claim in a class-action lawsuit that the Amazon-owned retailer retaliated against them for wearing apparel associated with the Black Lives Matter movement.

In the lawsuit, 14 employees at Whole Foods stores in California, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Washington State claim the company was unjustly enforcing its dress code policy.

In a statement, Whole Foods denies any employees were fired for wearing Black Lives Matter face masks or apparel.

From the New York Times:

The workers were sent home without pay, subjected to corrective discipline and threatened with the loss of their jobs for refusing to remove the items, a class-action lawsuit filed on Monday in Federal District Court in Massachusetts said.

The company, which is owned by Amazon, did not enforce its dress code policy when employees wore messages on masks and apparel expressing support for other entities and causes, such as sports teams and L.G.B.T.Q. rights, the lawsuit said.

One of the workers, Savannah Kinzer, was fired on Saturday from her job in Cambridge, Mass., for wearing a Black Lives Matter mask and for protesting Whole Foods discipline of employees for doing so, the lawsuit said. She also encouraged co-workers to wear the masks.

Whole Foods employees across the country have been prohibited from wearing Black Lives Matter masks and other related apparel at work, it said.

More at the New York Times:Whole Foods Punished Workers for Black Lives Matter Masks, Suit Says Read the rest