QQ on restricting the transfer of stocks for a public company.

Hello All,

I work for a company that went public about 1 1/2 years ago. At the time they offered us a ESPP (employee stock purchase program), which I opted into and have been AGGRESSIVELY putting money towards.

I recently went to move my shares from the equity company to my personal brokerage and discovered that the transfer option had been removed. This was available when we first signed up and in our intra company webinars we even had a few people bring it up.

I was looking around trying to find a precedent for this with a publicly traded company but I can't find info on if this is legal or allowed.

I would really prefer not to take a taxable event and sell my shares to access my money. If I can transfer to my personal brokerage, I have the availability to sell calls and populate some (relatively) safe premiums.

The question here is; Is a publicly traded company allowed to prevent the transfer of shares that employees own? (these are not vested shares that have yet to mature, they are owned outright)