06-03-2021
Bull Moose is a retail chain store selling various formats of music, movies, and video games. The company fired all the employees in its Salem, New Hampshire store in late May, allegedly because of its changing mask policy.
The store announced plans to end its mask requirement for customers. Many of the store’s employees pushed back against the change. Apparently, the employees expressed strong concern about lifting the mask requirements with some employees saying they felt unsafe while others threatened to quit. The employees protested the decision through angry emails to the whole store. Management suddenly closed the store early the day before terminating the employees. The company CEO emailed all 20 employees notifying them of their termination. According to interviews with some of the workers, tensions between the company and employees had been heightened for some time over the handling of pandemic restrictions.
Bull Moose released a statement notifying the public about the store’s “temporary” closure, but declined to state the reasons to protect employee confidentiality. In its statement, the company asserted its decision was unrelated to “masks or face coverings for employees or customers.” Closing the store is necessary to serve the best interests of moving the business forward in the community, per the statement. The CEO told a news outlet that while he could not comment on the terminations, he could say it was unrelated to masks. The CEO left open the question of wow Bull Moose planned to handle mask requirements at its other stores.