Elon Musk’s Dublin-based Twitter International UC has been ordered to pay an Irish record unfair dismissal award of €550,131 to a former senior employee.
This follows Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) Adjudicator Michael MacNamee finding that the billionaire’s Twitter International UC unfairly dismissed the company’s former source to pay director, Gary Rooney, in December 2022 after he failed to respond to Elon Musk’s ‘Fork in the Road’ email.
On October 28th 2022, Mr Musk acquired Twitter's (now ‘X’s') global business in a deal worth $44 billion and within weeks, Twitter confirmed that 140 employees at its European HQ in Dublin were being made redundant.
Accounts published in August 2023 confirmed that Twitter International UC had incurred redundancy costs of €12.7 million since Mr Musk’s 2022 acquisition.
Twitter International UC contested Mr Rooney’s claim in full over five days of hearing at the WRC contending that he had resigned voluntarily.
'Fork in the Road' email
However, in his findings, Mr MacNamee found that Mr Rooney was dismissed because he did not click “yes” to Elon Musk’s ‘Fork in the Road’ email and for that reason alone.
On November 16th 2022, Mr Rooney and the Twitter workforce received an email from Mr Musk who said: “Going forward, to build a breakthrough Twitter 2.0 and succeed in an increasingly competitive world, we will need to be extremely hardcore. This will mean working long hours at high intensity. Only exceptional performance will constitute a passing a grade.[....]"
Mr Musk added: “If you are sure that you want to be part of the new Twitter, please click yes on the link below. Anyone has not done so by 5pm ET tomorrow will receive three months of severance.”
After Mr Rooney, (represented in the case by Arthur Cush BL, instructed by solicitor, Barry Kenny of Bray-based Kenny Sullivan Solicitors) opted not to click ‘yes’ on the link, three days later on Saturday, November 19th, 2022, Mr Rooney received a further company email which stated that it is “to acknowledge your decision to resign and accept the voluntary separation offer”.
The email stated that Mr Rooney’s last working day was Thursday, November 17th and that his access to Twitter systems was deactivated the same day.
Mr Rooney had commenced work for Twitter in 2013 as 'EMEA Sourcing and Procurement Manager - Dublin' before his promotion to the ‘Director Source to Pay’ role in February 2021.
On November 26th, 2022, Mr Rooney emailed his employer to outline “that at no time have I indicated to Twitter that I am resigning my position, nor have I seen any separation agreement let alone accepted one”.
On December 7th 2022, Twitter told Mr Rooney in an email that “You have decided not to click “yes” in response to Elon’s email entitled “A Fork in the Road” sent on Wednesday, November 16, 2022. As we advised you at that time, this was treated as you having served notice to resign your employment with Twitter International Unlimited Company".
Mr Rooney instructed his solicitors to write to Twitter on December 13th, 2022, and January 19th, 2023, calling on them to re-engage him and confirming his commitment to working with the company and no response was ever received to these letters.
Evidence
In evidence, Mr Rooney told the WRC that prior to the change of ownership he loved his job.
On receiving Mr Musk’s ‘Fork in the Road’ email, Mr Rooney said his first reaction was disbelief, and he was initially afraid to even open it for fear that it was spam or malware.
On November 17th 2022, Mr Rooney sent two messages to a colleague on the company’s internal SLACK messaging system saying “Hey – wanted to let you know im going” and stating later “I need to step away for my own sake. Im deeply troubled by whats going on here these days”.
'Twitter 2.0'
In a message to another colleague later that day, Mr Rooney said: “Twitter 2.0 wont be for you and me”.
Ahead of Mr Musk’s deadline in which to respond to ‘The Fork in the Road’ email, Mr Rooney emailed a colleague ‘this is mental’ and the colleague replied ‘wild!’.
Twitter International UC's senior director of human resources, Ms Lauren Wegman, told the hearing that Mr Musk’s 'Fork in the Road' email was sent to 270 employees in Ireland, which was the balance of workers not affected by redundancies, and 235 clicked “yes”.
In relation to the remaining 35 employees, Ms Wegman said “We accepted their resignations”.
Ms Wegman said the mood amongst workers at the time was mixed with some excited about “Twitter 2.0” while others were more negative and wanted out of the company.
Ms Wegman denied that the Fork in the Road Email was an attempt to reduce the workforce.
The WRC hearing was told during Mr Wegman’s evidence that the ‘Fork in the Road’ email was a way to determine who wanted to take on the challenge of Twitter 2.0.
In his findings in the 73-page decision, Mr MacNamee stated that "the SLACK messages have no relevance to the question as to what brought about the termination of the Complainant’s employment".
Record award
The record €550,131 award is made up of Mr Rooney’s remuneration losses of €350,131 from January 2023 to May 2024 and estimated future remuneration losses of €200,000.
The remuneration losses are based on Mr Rooney’s Twitter remuneration of €323,560 made up of €151,225 in pay and €172,335 in deferred cash consideration.
Mr Rooney secured a new role with an employer in the banking sector in September 2023 on total remuneration of €129,897.
Solicitor for Mr Rooney, Barry Kenny said today that he welcomed “the clear and unambiguous finding that my client did not resign from his employment but was unfairly dismissed from his job, notwithstanding his excellent employment record and contribution to the company over the years”.
Mr Kenny - who specialises in employment law - said: “It is not okay for Mr Musk, or indeed any large company to treat employees in such a manner in this country/jurisdiction. The record award reflects the seriousness and the gravity of the case.”
Twitter International UC* does have the option of appealing the WRC ruling to the Labour Court.
