A new policy banning protective face masks for employees at MOM’s Organic Market is drawing backlash from employees and the public.
Under the policy, any employee who wants to wear a mask must submit documentation from a doctor for company approval. Customers are still permitted to mask.
There has been confusion about when the policy goes into effect, some thinking it went into effect on Aug. 10, and now the official word from the company is that the date is Aug. 24.
This applies to employees who wish to mask for their own well-being during COVID spikes and flu season, or if they care for someone in their household who is immunocompromised.
Scott Nash, owner and CEO of MOM’s Organic Market, has not returned Baltimore Fishbowl’s emails or attempts to reach him via the company website. All the phone numbers listed on the website for corporate-level positions are routed to store locations.
Baltimore Fishbowl spoke to three employees of MOM’s Maryland store locations. The chain has stores in six states on the East Coast and Washington, D.C. All three spoke on the condition of anonymity because they feared repercussions from the company. All names used for employees are pseudonyms.
Hanna is a manager who is resigning in protest of the new policy. She said she was told employees would have to obtain ADA accommodations by Aug. 24 to avoid being written up for wearing a mask. She considered this policy an infringement on her freedoms and danger to her health, fearing it could lead to both more sick employees and potential terminations.
Respiratory hazards in the store beyond illness, like freon leaks, chemicals, and mouse droppings, all support the need for masks beyond having a disability or immunocompromised health, Hanna said. She also called the method in which the policy was rolled out “slipshod” and “secretive.”
Stores have morning and evening meetings called “huddles,” but the mask policy has been left out of those meetings, Hanna said.
“[T]hey have explicitly avoided huddling this policy to keep as many people in the dark about it as they can,” Hanna told Baltimore Fishbowl. “It’s almost like they can tell how bad this looks, and they’re trying to do a little damage control, right?”
Instead, Hanna said, leaders have been informing masked employees individually.
“So, what they’ve been doing is pulling aside every employee that masks, and telling them that this is the new policy, and by this date you need to have a doctor’s note to get ADA accommodations, so that you will not be written up, which could lead to termination for wearing a mask,” she said.
The new policy creates a potential domino effect in which employees’ inability to mask could lead to illness, absence, penalties, and even termination, Hanna said.
Employees earn their absence pay or hours based on their hourly work. If they are sick but do not have enough absence pay to cover their absence for an illness, they get “points,” which are a form of penalization. If they must work but cannot mask, they are more likely to become ill, use more sick hours than they were able to earn, receive points on their record, and be fired.
Hanna does not believe the stated rationale for the no-masking rule for employees, which is that masks detract from customer experience. She links it to corporate offices wanting to track employees.
“Our store camera systems have AI that uses facial recognition,” Hanna said. “So, they’re going to be better able to track employees and potentially see what they’re saying, lip read them if they are not wearing masks.”
Gabriel also works in a Maryland store, and he believes the timing of the new dress code rollout is suspicious.
Maryland has the only two MOM’s stores that have unionized (Hampden and Timonium), and their collective bargaining agreement expires on Sept. 12. Contract negotiations began in July and are ongoing.
Non-union locations, however, have received higher hourly wage increases than the two unionized store employees and better benefits increases, according to Gabriel. He believes that this and the new dress code, including how it was introduced, borders on retaliatory behavior.
He also described the rollout of the mask ban as haphazard and informal, and the policy itself “unnecessary” and “immoral.”
“Initially, everything I learned about the policy was through hearsay and informal conversations individually with managers, and through the union group chat,” Gabriel told Baltimore Fishbowl. “My first time hearing about the ban at work was from a manager who had just learned about it themselves. This manager didn’t say when the policy was going into effect but told me that managers were given one week to obtain a doctor’s note for an accommodation.”
Gabriel consulted the union group chat, and they found a newer version of the employee handbook which he said was updated frequently but not reintroduced. He continued wearing a mask, even at the risk of being written up.
“At the end of the day, he [the general manager] calls for a huddle and he explains about the gloves, which we didn’t know about yet,” Gabriel said. “And he explained it’s because we’re using too many gloves. It’s for environmental purposes. You cannot wear them at the register when you’re handling food, money, things like that, he said he would be providing hand sanitizer, which he has, actually.”
There are no exceptions, however, if an employee has sensitive skin, a cut, or skin condition like eczema. There is no way to get an accommodation for that policy.
Gabriel estimated about 20% of the employees in his store regularly masked before Aug. 10, but there has been a dramatic difference since the ban was thought to be implemented. He knows people who generally wear masks who have stopped because they fear corrective action. Gabriel praised the managers below the general managerial level for doing all they can to protect and communicate with employees within the confines of their job requirements.
“Anything the public can do to support us really lifts morale and lets us know that our community is behind us,” Gabriel said.
Former Hampden store workers created a website called “Support MOM’s Workers” to inform the public about the mask ban, and seek support and solidarity. The group also has an Instagram account called “Support Moms Hampden Workers” on which they have called for Aug. 24 and 30 to be “Solidarity Days.” The group is asking customers to wear masks and email Nash, the CEO, to complain about the mask ban. They also mention Hampden store general manager Joe Hurley, asking people to direct complaints to him.
“Joe Hurley at the huddle did say one of the reasons for this change was customers calling to complain about masks,” one of the anonymous workers mentioned to Baltimore Fishbowl. “I’ve never heard of an incident where a customer demanded to see a face or even complained mildly about someone wearing a mask.”
Baltimore Fishbowl spoke with Hurley on Friday, Aug. 14, who initially laughed upon hearing he was speaking to a reporter. He then said he could not comment without permission of the marketing or communications team.
“I know just as a policy, all kind of reporters, media, we send through our marketing communications team. … But without going through them, I don’t have a comment. If you want to send us an email, I can forward it on to them and see if they have a comment.”
Acknowledging MOM’s does not list phone numbers for any of their departments, Hurley said corporate offices “[u]sually have us kind of get in touch with them when something comes up. But you can send an email to my team and then I can escalate it to them.”
Baltimore Fishbowl emailed Hurley at the Hampden store email address he provided and Nash on that afternoon and has not received a response from either five days later.
Andrea is a MOM’s employee who enjoys both her co-workers and the customers, and is distressed by the mask ban for multiple reasons. She describes her co-workers as all “incredibly kind and good and hardworking people.” Part of what she enjoys about the job is that while it is hard work and physically taxing, everybody does every job.
“So, when they’re like, ‘Don’t wear masks,’ it’s like, okay, so somebody just went into the bathroom and just blew sh*t right behind the toilet onto the wall,” Andrea said. “I mean, it’s like everybody does everything. So, everyone cleans. Everyone does register. I mean, when people are like, ‘Oh, you’re over HERE now!”, and I’m like, ‘Yeah, guess what? We all take out the garbage.’ … [P]eople that shop at MOM’s shop at MOM’s regularly, and everybody there works very hard. You basically have a 30-minute break, but nobody sits. It’s just a taxing job.”
Andrea, like Gabriel and Hanna, thinks the policy’s rollout was terrible. She called it “shady” and “dysfunctional” because no one is speaking about it. She believes the timing is suspicious because of the union negotiations and that Nash has never forgiven the notion that some of the workers – in two of the 27 stores – formed a collective. She worries about some of the part-time workers, some with two or three jobs, who will have to find the time to go to the doctor to get a note now.
She truly cares about her co-workers and loves her job and the regular community connections she has gained.
“I really like my job. I love people that come there,” Andrea said. “They come all the time. They’re regulars and a lot of us really enjoy them. There’s kind of an interaction that goes on. You’re familiar with people. They’re familiar with you. There’s a warmth there.”
This what angers her so much about the new mask ban.
“It’s just really unkind and unjustified,” she said.
*Editor’s note: A previous version of this piece mistakenly listed College Park as the other unionized MOM’s Organic Market location, but Timonium’s MOM’s is the other unionized store. This version also updates the policy’s effective date to Aug. 24, noting mixed signals in communication between MOM’s corporate and employees.
