On November 14, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against a decision by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) that had declared that a uniform policy at Tesla, the electric vehicle manufacturer, violated the rights of its employees to wear union insignia. The court’s ruling puts a damper on the NLRB’s lopsided stance in favor of labor unions in recent years and offers some hope for employers that have neutral, non-discriminatory dress codes.
The case began in 2017, when some employees of Tesla started wearing black shirts with the logo of the United Auto Workers (UAW) union instead of company-provided black shirts with the Tesla logo, which the company required to prevent damage to vehicles while emerging from production and to facilitate visual management of its production facility.
