The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously threw out a lower court ruling on Thursday that required Starbucks to rehire seven Memphis employees who were terminated during their attempts to unionize. Now, the workers do not have to be reinstated while the case is working its way through the courts.
The coffee company claimed that the previous judge should have used a four-factor test to evaluate the bid for an injunction brought by the U.S. National Labor Relations Board, which includes factors such as whether the party seeking relief would suffer irreparable harm and if they’re likely to succeed based on the merits of the case.
The justices unanimously chose to send the case back to the lower court to use that four-factor test, though Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson partially dissented on how the lower court should apply part of that test.
Around 10,000 employees at approximately 400 Starbucks locations in the U.S. have voted to unionize, though both sides have at times alleged that the other was engaging in improper or unlawful conduct.
