Bob Young Quoted in Worcester Telegram’s “Businesses optimistic about new era of pandemic with end of mask mandate”

February 22, 2022

On February 17, 2022, the City of Worcester’s mask mandate was rescinded, no longer requiring municipal buildings and indoor spaces to adhere to a mask mandate. However, individual businesses can still choose to require masks for customers and employees. Bob Young spoke with the Worcester Telegram about considerations employers must still address:

The removal of the mask mandate could also create new labor considerations for employers that have to balance employee interests with customer desires, Robert G. Young, a partner at Bowditch & Dewey who helps clients with labor and employment issues, said.

“In some ways, it puts the employer back in the more difficult position of having to balance competing interests at work,” Young said. “There’ll be a group of employees who want to continue having everybody masked up and there’ll be [a] group of employees who are thrilled that the mask mandate has ended and don’t want to return in masks any longer.”

While the decision to wear a mask or not is not a protected status under the law, Young said an immunocompromised person who faced harassment at their workplace for their choice to wear a mask could pursue legal action by claiming that they are being harassed on the basis of disability.

Continue reading “Businesses optimistic about new era of pandemic with end of mask mandate” on the Worcester Telegram website.