After MOM’s Organic Market faced backlash for prohibiting employees from wearing face masks unless they provide a note from a doctor, the company appears to be walking back that policy at least in part.
Earlier in the week, Baltimore Fishbowl reported that the new policy banned face masks for employees, and any exceptions required a note from a doctor before they would be considered. Employees described the rollout as haphazard and inconsistent from store to store.
Now, managers of MOM’s Organic Market have apparently received an email that has not been disseminated to store workers. An anonymous source shared with Baltimore Fishbowl the message pertaining to face masks.
The email dictates how managers are to communicate to workers and the public about the policy. It contains a bullet point called “New Dress Code Policy clarification” with a sub-bullet for “Mask communication,” indicating that “message below may be used if needed in stores.”
The first paragraph reiterates the company’s reasoning for the mask ban, including the importance of prioritizing “face-to-face connection” between store workers and customers. The ban is described as part of a dress code update “intended to support the customer experience.”
The second paragraph focuses on exceptions to the ban, now including instances of being exposed to an illness, having symptoms of illness, and protecting an immunocompromised loved one. It states, “No documentation, including a doctor’s note, is required for employees to use these exceptions. In those circumstances, MOM’s store managers and Employee Experience team are here to support.”
Hanna, one of the MOM’s employees whom Baltimore Fishbowl spoke with for its original article on the matter, said she was not impressed with the language of the clarification Baltimore Fishbowl shared with her.
“They’re saying employees don’t need a doctor note to wear a mask,” Hanna said. “This is because of a footnote on the initial policy … which says that on a case-by-case basis WITH MANAGER APPROVAL employees may TEMPORARILY wear a face mask. So, they take the onus away from ADA accommodations and [place it] onto individual managers and their whims and preferences, which is actually worse.”
“They are being very weaselly with this clarification because they got so much bad PR, but the actual policy has not changed and the dress code remains the same,” Hanna concluded.
Baltimore Fishbowl reached out again to CEO and President Scott Nash and Hampden store General Manager Joe Hurley about the clarification language, but we have not heard back from either.
