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NLRB Opens Door for Employers to Revise Their Rules About Wearing Pins or Buttons
Author(s) -
Wich Scott
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
management report for nonunion organizations
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1530-8286
pISSN - 0745-4880
DOI - 10.1002/mare.30575
Subject(s) - safeguarding , reputation , variety (cybernetics) , business , work (physics) , front (military) , public relations , law , political science , computer science , engineering , medicine , mechanical engineering , nursing , artificial intelligence
In yet another instance of revisiting and revising prior National Labor Relations Board rules, the Board has recently applied a new analysis to the question of when an employer may lawfully prohibit employees from wearing buttons or pins, including those that support a union. The analysis in Wal‐Mart Stores, Inc. should be useful to many employers that devote substantial time and resources to promoting and safeguarding their company's image and reputation. Sometimes such efforts include uniforms or dress codes to present a professional image. Other times, employers simply expect employees to conduct themselves in a way that does not cast the company in a bad light, including wearing certain types of buttons at work. However, workers are not always of the same opinion and can appear at work—and in front of customers—wearing a variety of messages that are not company‐approved. In one recent real‐world example, the NLRB required AT&T to permit employees to wear buttons in front of customers that included messages such as “WTF AT$T” and “CUT the CRAP!”