Jan 21 (Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc unlawfully retaliated against workers who participated in strikes in 2013 and must offer to reinstate 16 former employees, a National Labor Relations Board judge has ruled.
Administrative Law Judge Geoffrey Carter said in a ruling posted on the board's website on Thursday that Wal-Mart violated labor laws by "disciplining or discharging several associates because they were absent from work while on strike".
Most of the allegations in the ruling related to a coordinated set of strikes at various Wal-Mart stores in May and June of 2013, the ruling said.
Carter ordered that Wal-Mart, the largest private employer in the United States, must offer 16 former workers their previous jobs and make them "whole for any loss of earnings and other benefits suffered as a result of the discrimination against them".
(Reporting by Nathan Layne in Chicago; Editing by Sandra Maler)