Whole Foods reaches settlement over "illegal firing" of ex-employee stemming from BLM protesting
Whole Foods has reached an agreement to settle a lawsuit accusing it of "illegally firing a worker who refused to remove her Black Lives Matter face mask and complained about racism," according to Nate Raymond with Reuters.
The lawsuit originally "began as a proposed class action when it was filed in 2020 over a Whole Foods dress code that barred workers from wearing attire related to Black Lives Matter," according to Raymond. In the original suit, Savannah Kinzer had said that she was "fired for protesting outside her store, rejecting demands to stop wearing a mask and [for] talking to the press." Her claims were the last that remained from the originally filed lawsuit alleging improper firing and a mask ban that was "racially discriminatory," according to Reuters.
"While courts rejected those discrimination claims, the Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in April revived Kinzer's individual claim that her firing constituted illegal retaliation and said a jury should resolve the dispute," Raymond wrote.
The trial was originally set for August 19, but the settlement terms have not been disclosed.
