Elon Musk’s X has been ordered to pay compensation to a former staff member of its Irish unit in an unfair dismissal case.
The social network platform formerly known as Twitter was ordered to pay out over €550,000 ($602,640) to the former employee, Ireland’s Workplace Relations Commission, the state body responsible for adjudicating employment disputes, said on Tuesday. It is the largest sum the agency has ever awarded, according to Irish broadcaster RTE.
Gary Rooney, who held a senior procurement role at the time of his dismissal in December 2022, had been employed by the company since September 2013. The Commission heard that the social media platform maintained that the employee had resigned voluntarily after he failed to tick a box committing to new unspecified working arrangements in an email from the company’s new owner Musk.
Rooney was one of thousands of Twitter employees sent an email by Musk requiring them to pledge to stay with the company, working long hours at “high intensity” during its transformation, or to accept a buyout. Staff were given a day to click “yes” to agree to unspecified employment terms.
The commission rejected X’s argument that Rooney quit voluntarily and ruled that not clicking “yes” in response to the email did not constitute an act of resignation.
“It is not OK for Mr. Musk, or indeed any large company to treat employees in such a manner in this country or jurisdiction. The record award reflects the seriousness and the gravity of the case,” the complainant’s solicitor Barry Kenny told Bloomberg.
It’s one in a string of cases that have sprung up since Musk purchased the platform. Multiple lawsuits have already alleged that Twitter employees didn’t receive their promised severance benefits, while the site has come under more intense scrutiny since he acquired it.
The dispute arose in Dublin after billionaire Musk took ownership of the platform in late 2022. The Irish capital had about 500 employees before the takeover, but has since been impacted by the global staff exodus from the firm.
The WRC in its 73-page ruling stated the emails had been sent “at a time of rapid change in Twitter and in the context of inconsistent, contradictory and confusing communications from the Respondent in connection with the takeover of the Company by Mr. Musk.”
X didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The company can lodge an appeal to the Labour Court within 42 days.