National Labor Relations Board Rules that Ban on BLM Marking Violated National Labor Relations Act

The National Labor Relations Board recently ruled that a Home Depot store has violated the National Labor Relations Act by insisting that one of its employees remove a "BLM" marking from their uniform.  The NLRB determined that mandating the employee to remove the marking from Home Depot's orange apron constituted an unfair labor practice.  In a separate recent NLRB decision, the NLRB reinstituted a former rule in which an employer's interference with insignia, banners, or badges is presumptively viewed as unlawful, unless there are special circumstances for the interference.  In this present matter, Home Depot insisted that its employee remove a BLM logo from his apron, which the employee had drawn on the apron six months before this request, and told the employee that they feared allowing this logo could lead to other employees to request to put swastikas on their aprons.  This eventually led to the employee being forced to resign.  The NLRB determined that there were no special circumstances permitting Home Depot to prohibit the BLM writing, that Home Depot had forced the employee to resign, and that the employee had engaged in concerted activity because his behavior was a logical outgrowth of other employee complaints of bias against people of color.  Such alleged actions are a violation of the National Labor Relations Act, which protects employees who engage in protected concerted activity to improve workplace conditions.  See Home Depot USA, Inc. and Antonio Morales Jr Case 18–CA–273796.