The National Labor Relations Board has ruled that Whole Foods lawfully prohibited employees from wearing masks, pins, and clothing with Black Lives Matter messaging.
In a 2-1 decision issued July 31, the board upheld an administrative law judge’s earlier finding that Whole Foods was not in violation of the National Labor Relations Act.
The case stemmed from the summer of 2020 following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis when workers at stores across multiple states were told to remove BLM masks, pins, and buttons or clock out.
Those employees who refused were disciplined or fired, based on the supermarket chain’s dress code adopted in 2013 as part of a settlement in a different NLRB case.
The case was a consolidation of 18 complaints brought by current and former Whole Foods employees.
In its decision, the board noted that as the employees wearing BLM apparel were not protesting their own working conditions, Whole Foods had the right to prohibit the clothing and discipline them.
The board also ruled that Whole Foods’ dress code was not overly broad, reversing an administrative judge’s ruling that the policy was illegal.
The case centered on whether the employees’ conduct qualified as protected “concerted activity” under Section 7 of the NLRA.
That section shields employees who act together to improve wages, hours, or working conditions.
The board found that while employees did act in concert with one another, there was no connection between the...
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