A complaint from the Minneapolis branch of the National Labor Relations Board states that an employee of The Home Depot who wore a Black Lives Matter logo on his apron and spoke to colleagues about racial discrimination was suspended after he declined to remove the logo.
According to the complaint issued Aug. 12, the employee began wearing “BLM” lettering on his apron in August 2020. He also used the lettering in emails and spoke to co-workers about ongoing discrimination at the workplace before he was given the choice to either remove the lettering or leave the address for The Home Depot sometime in 2021.
In February, employees were told that if they continued to engage in activities related to racial harassment they would face “unspecified consequences,” the complaint says. The employee ultimately left the job and the complaint accuses the company of “constructive discharge.”
A spokesperson for The Home Depot told Business Insider the complaint misrepresents the facts of the situation.
“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,” the spokesperson said.
“We disagree with the characterization of this situation and look forward to sharing the facts during the NLRB’s process.”
NLRB Regional Director Jennifer Hadsalls said in a statement earlier this month, “Issues of racial harassment directly impact the working conditions of employees. The NLRB 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.”
NLRB said that The Home Depot “unlawfully enforced its otherwise lawful dress code and apron policies, and threatened employees not to engage in activity regarding racial harassment.”
The board will seek to advise all The Home Depot employees of their rights and will argue that a workplace rule not be used to restrict the protected activities of employees .
While The Home Depot’s dress code prohibits displays of “causes or political messages unrelated to workplace matters,” employees are permitted to raise the issue of discrimination in the workplace.
If the employee and The Home Depot don’t reach an agreement, a hearing before an NLRB administrative law judge will take place in October.
