Whole Foods, Amazon Tell 1st Cir. to Nix Worker BLM Mask Appeal

Whole Foods Market Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. workers who insisted on wearing face masks and Black Lives Matter attire lack federal job bias claims, because the companies’ dress-code enforcement wasn’t based on race, the companies told the First Circuit.

A lower court properly dismissed most of the claims in the July 20 proposed class lawsuit under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act because the 28 Whole Foods workers and one Amazon Prime employee who sued have conceded that all employees wearing BLM attire were treated equally regardless of race, the companies said in a brief filed Monday. “This ...