Starbucks Legally Denied Worker’s Transfers, Labor Board Rules

Starbucks Corp.’s denials of a worker’s requests for transfers between Illinois stores comported with federal labor law, the National Labor Relations Board ruled.

The coffee giant had a legitimate reason—the worker’s lack of availability—for denying one transfer ask, the NLRB held Thursday. Agency prosecutors failed to show the company rejected the worker’s second bid to switch stores was unlawfully based on her union activities, the board found.

The decision marks a rare administrative win for Starbucks. The NLRB has ruled the company violated the law in about a dozen cases. Agency judges have ruled against the company in more than 70 decisions.

While the NLRB upheld an administrative law judge’s 2023 decision dismissing the allegations against Starbucks, the board repudiated one of the ALJ’s rationales.

Administrative Law Judge Keltner Locke had held that 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.

But that conclusion is contrary to a 1981 NLRB ruling that a discriminatory refusal to transfer a worker violated the National Labor Relations Act, the board said.

The case is Starbucks Corp., N.L.R.B., Case 13-CA-300739, 8/29/24