Settlement with Menards at the National Labor Relations Board

Gender Justice is pleased to announce a landmark settlement between the National Labor Relations Board and Menards on behalf of two transgender former Menards employees and Gender Justice clients. As a result, Menards has agreed to change its company policy and allow employees to display their pronouns on their store-issued name badges. This settlement is a victory for trans, non-binary and gender-fluid employees everywhere.

In 2020, after being repeatedly misgendered by customers, two trans Menards employees decided to wear pins displaying their pronouns next to their store-issued name badges. After being initially told by local management that they could wear the pronoun pins, the employees were informed that Menards corporate management prohibited them from doing so. Both employees ultimately quit and came to Gender Justice to file a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board against Menards.

The NLRB investigated the complaint and determined that Menards’s censoring of employee speech communicating about their identity violated their rights under the NLRA to organize to improve their working conditions. Menards agreed to settle the claim, and as a result, the company now permits any employee nationwide to display their pronouns on their store name badge, along with their name.

“This settlement is a huge victory for trans workers everywhere, as it confirms that displaying pronouns next to store-issued identification is protected speech under the NLRA,” said Christy Hall, Gender Justice Senior Staff Attorney. “Menards’s policy change will improve the working conditions of all trans, non-binary and gender fluid workers among the company’s 42,000 workers in 15 states, and it sends a message to other companies that acknowledging and respecting their employees’ gender identities is not only protected under the NLRA–it’s good for business.”