Dive Brief:
A three-member panel of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) affirmed Dec. 7 an agency judge's ruling that Nestlé USA violated the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) when it suspended and discharged an employee at a Wisconsin frozen pizza facility who reported a line coordinator's racist comment.
Per court documents, the employee and several co-workers submitted a petition to their HR department complaining about the comment. Nestlé did not investigate the claim at the time, but it did suspend the line coordinator without pay in response to the petition. However, the employee, who felt the line coordinator should have been terminated, reported the comment to a different supervisor. Nestlé investigated the incident but suspended the employee and later discharged the employee following the report.