AT&T can stop workers from wearing 'Inmate' shirts, court says

AT&T can prohibit employees from wearing shirts that read “Inmate” on the front because it might hurt the company’s relationship with customers, the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said. The decision reverses a 2-1 National Labor Relations Board ruling in favor of the workers.

The case concerns shirts that were given to employees of AT&T Connecticut by their union during a contentious contract dispute. They said “Inmate” on the front and “Prisoner of AT$T” on the back with “several vertical stripes above and below the lettering," according to the court. AT&T told workers who were interacting with customers to stop wearing the shirts, and suspended those who did not comply for one day. It’s illegal for a company to stop their employees from wearing union apparel -- but an exception exists when the clothing could hurt the company’s relationship with its customers. The NLRB ruled that the shirts could not reasonably be mistaken for prison garb and thus were unlikely to hurt AT&T’s relationship with its customers. On July 10, the court reversed that decision.