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What I’ve Been Reading This Week


I think it might have been appropriate to title this something along the lines of “What I’ve Been Reading This Week:  Corporate Edition”.  As readers can see from the below, there are a few developments over at Starbucks and Amazon over the past few days, in relation to relevant employment and labor law matters.  Both articles are worth a read, if for no other reason than to see how some employers are managing workplace issues in light of recent current events.

As always, below are a couple articles that caught my eye this week.



Earlier this morning, CNBC reported that Starbucks had reversed course and decided to allow its employees to wear Black Lives Matter (“BLM”) apparel and accessories in the workplace.  In recent days, Starbucks had placed a prohibition on its employees wearing or displaying anything affiliated with BLM while at work.  However, after receiving a wave of backlash by critics who pointed out that the company allowed employees to wear and display support for LGBTQ causes, Starbucks has changed its policy.  Perhaps they did not want to get into a prolonged battle over workplace apparel, as In-N-Out Burger had?



Jaclyn Diaz over at Bloomberg Law wrote an article recently in which she recognized that Amazon has noticeably bulked up its workplace safety team in recent months.  Since the start of the year, Amazon has hired twenty people for in house counsel and adviser roles, with a focus on bolstering the company's workplace safety and labor and employment litigation section.  Earlier this week, I had noted that Amazon (along with other employers) was under fire for claims that the company had not taken appropriate steps to protect its workers from the coronavirus pandemic.  While these hires were made before the coronavirus pandemic really took off, it is worth noting that Amazon is moving to aggressively shore up its team to deal with potential workplace safety issues going forward.

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