Starbucks Dress Code Curbing Union Logos Allowed, Labor ALJ Says

A Starbucks policy that limits workers from wearing clothes that bear logos, including union insignia, doesn’t violate federal labor law, a National Labor Relations Board Judge ruled.

A Chicago store met the “special circumstances” necessary to lawfully restrict employees from wearing some union merchandise, Administrative Law Judge Keltner W. Locke ruled Wednesday. Those circumstances include an employer’s efforts to maintain consistency in the workplace.

Starbucks’ policy “appears to approximate, or strive to approximate” a business casual level of formality among workers that is consistent with the type of store environment Starbucks is trying to produce.

“The environment itself may be ...