Huge win: Judge allows Home Depot to ban Black Lives Matter messaging in their work place

An employee filed complaint after Home Depot told him to take off his BLM propaganda. NLRB judge dismisses the case, corporate policy is not discriminatory.

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ATLANTA, GA – The Home Depot won a major victory regarding what they can prohibit their employees from endorsing in the workplace.

In 2021, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) filed a complaint against the home improvement retail giant for what they called a violation of employee rights because they prohibited the workers from wearing BLM imagery on the job.

Last week, a judge dismissed the complaint by the NLRB on behalf of Antonio Morales, Jr.

The complaint originated with a single employee at one of their stores in Minnesota.

According to the complaint, obtained by the Epoch Times via a Freedom of Information Act request, “the worker had been wearing a BLM logo on his apron since August 2020 and engaged in related conversations with coworkers. The employee was suspended in 2021 following a refusal to remove the logo and later resigned.”

 

The corporation responded to the allegations when the complaint was first filed.

“The Home Depot does not tolerate workplace harassment of any kind and takes all reports of discrimination or harassment seriously, as we did in this case,” said the company spokesperson, Sara Gorman, dismissing the allegations as misrepresentations.

“We disagree with the characterization of this situation and look forward to sharing the facts during the NLRB’s process.”

 

But the facts of the case didn’t stop the NLRB from issuing an August 2021 press release that claimed that the employee was fired for refusal to remove the button.

Home Depot has a store dress code that expressly prohibits displays of causes or political messaging unrelated to workplace matters.

Given that the corporation operates more than 2,200 stores in North America, the complaint asked for a nationwide “notice-posting” remedy. In essence, they wanted to force Home Depot to post signs making their staff aware that they were allowed to wear those buttons if they wanted to.

After all, the board argued, it is their right under the National Labor Relations Act.

According to the Region 18 office, raising issues of racial harassment with coworkers and managers as well as displaying a Black Lives Matter slogan on his apron, are all protected actions.

“Issues of racial harassment directly impact the working conditions of employees. The NLRA protects employees’ rights to raise these issues with the goal of improving their working conditions. It is this important right we seek to protect in this case,” said Region 18 Director Jennifer Hadsall. 

 

So, wearing a BLM button on your apron does that?

If anything, the button could cause more harm to conversations than it does good.

The complaint also argued that the store “threatened employees not to engage in activity regarding racial harassment.”

In a bit of confusing word play, the press release said:

“…the store unlawfully enforced its otherwise lawful dress code and apron policies.”

 

How exactly does that work?

If the dress code is lawful and you enforce it, how then do you enforce it unlawfully?

One has to wonder if the NLRB flagged it as “unlawful” because of the subject matter. Would they have filed the same complaint had Home Depot told an employee he or she were not allowed to put on a Thin Blue Line flag pin on their apron?

We reached out to the NLRB to ask that very question. As of the time of this writing, we have not received a response.

While we cannot predict their response, should they provide one, it may go something like this.

There is a vast difference between discussions surrounding racial discrimination and the BLM movement and supporting law enforcement.

We would argue that given BLM’s stance is based entirely on perceived police “brutality” targeting solely people of color, the actual targeting of police officers across our country warrants the same level of credence and even protection.

The NLRB legal team did not discuss the political nature of the BLM. It merely argued that this particular employee was “required to choose between engaging in protected concerted activity, including displaying the ‘BLM’ slogan” and quitting.

But that contradicts their own press release that said he was fired.

One could easily argue that he wasn’t required to choose between those two options. He could have complied with the company’s directive and kept his job.

The NLRB judge hearing the arguments in the complaint, Paul Bogas, ruled that BLM Messaging does not fall within an employee’s protected concerted activity and that the NLRB lawyers had failed to sufficiently reason their argument.

He rightly stated that the BLM logo does nothing to improve terms and conditions of employment.

“BLM messaging is not inherently concerted. Nor does it have an objective, and sufficiently direct, relationship to terms and conditions of employment to fall within the mutual aid and protection clause,” Bogas wrote in his opinion

 

Flor clarity, “concerted activity” is defined by the NLRB as “actions done with coworkers for the purposes of improving work conditions, earnings, and related engagement.”

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