Starbucks’ Denials of Transfers Legal, Labor Board Judge Rules

Starbucks Corp.’s denials of a worker’s requests for transfers between Illinois stores passed legal muster, a National Labor Relations Board judge said in a rare administrative win for the coffee chain.

Refusing to transfer a worker doesn’t qualify as an adverse employment action, and thus can’t be the basis for an alleged unfair labor practice, Administrative Law Judge Keltner Locke ruled Thursday.

The decision marks the second time in nearly 30 ALJ decisions that a judge held that Starbucks committed no labor law violations.

Parties can appeal administrative law judge rulings to the NLRB.

Keltner said in his decision that ...