Catherwood LibraryILR School

A National Labor Relations Board judge has dismissed a complaint brought by a Home Depot employee who alleged the company forbade workers from wearing BLM slogans on their uniforms. Company policy allows employees to add fun extras to their uniforms but forbids slogans or messages that are "political or religious in nature, unrelated to the workplace." The employee who brought the complaint had been suspended for having BLM on their uniform, and then later resigned. NLRB lawyers had argued that "Black Lives Matter" should not be considered to be political in nature, and that it fell under protected concerted activity and that the employee should not have been forced to choose between resigning or engaging in protected activity. The judge who dismissed the suit said that the plaintiff's lawyers failed to prove that this message was protected because it was not done on behalf of a group of employees looking to improve working conditions at Home Depot.