In-N-Out Burger to Workers: No Masks Without Doc's Note

In-N-Out Burger's latest controversial COVID-adjacent move involves face masks, which employees of the chain will soon be barred from wearing in five states, unless they have a doctor's note. A company memo leaked on Twitter says the new mask guidelines are meant to "emphasize the importance of customer service and the ability to show our Associates' smiles and other facial features while considering the health and well-being of all individuals." Workers in Texas, Nevada, Colorado, Arizona, and Utah are affected; those in California and Oregon are not, since the latter two states bar employers from prohibiting employee masking, the Guardian reports.

In the other five states, however, only workers with a "specific medical condition or health concern that requires them to wear a mask," and who have a "valid medical note" saying so, will be allowed to mask up when the guidelines go into effect Aug. 14. Any employees who are granted permission to use masks must wear a company-provided N95, KTLA reports. That same requirement also holds true for employees in Oregon as well as in California, where In-N-Out launched and where about 300 of the fast-food chain's 391 restaurants are located, CNN reports. (During the COVID pandemic, the burger chain, which prints Bible verses on some of its packaging, refused to be the "vaccination police.")