Amazon: MA Whole Foods Employee Didn't Have Standing To File Suit

BOSTON —Amazon says employees at Whole Foods stores in Massachusett, New Hampshire and other states did not have legal standing to file a federal lawsuit in July accusing the company of discrimination, according to a brief filed in federal court Wednesday.

Alice Tisme's lawsuit claims she was sent home from work for wearing a Black Lives Matter facemask. The proposed class action lawsuit has 27 other named plaintiffs who are also claiming they were unfairly disciplined and discriminated against for wearing Black Lives Matter face masks to work.

But in a brief similar to the one filed by Whole Foods last month, parent company Amazon said Tisme needed to file a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission before filing her lawsuit. Amazon also argues Tisme's claims of racial discrimination are without merit because Whole Foods was enforcing a dress code that applies to all employees and was not singling out any workers based on race.

Tisme worked at one of the company's stores in Cambridge. The lawsuit has since been expanded to name Amazon as a defendant and now includes workers from Seattle, WA, Berkley, CA and Bedford, NH.

"Whole Foods has selectively enforced the dress code to target and suppress BLM messaging in the workplace, thereby discriminating against its Black employees and employees of other races who associate with them and advocate for them," the workers said in a response to last month's Whole Foods brief.

The initial complaint accuses Whole Foods of firing an employee who organized mask-wearing and disciplining other employees who participated. The lawsuit argues the company did not take similar action when employees wore clothing with other forms of political messaging, including support for LGBTQ rights.

The plaintiffs are seeking back pay for workers who were sent home, erasing disciplinary records for the workers, rehiring the worker who was fired and a court order ending the dress code. The law firm handling the lawsuit has a long track record of filing class action lawsuits against corporations, including Uber, Lyft, FedEx and IBM.

Dave Copeland writes for Patch and can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).