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https://www.theguardian.com/technology/article/2024/aug/13/musk-ordered-to-pay-x-employee-470000-for-unfair-dismissal>
"Twitter has been ordered to pay a record fine of more than €550,000 (£470,000)
to a former senior employee at its European headquarters in Ireland, after it
was found to have dismissed him unfairly when he failed to respond to an email
from Elon Musk calling on staff to be “extremely hardcore”.
When Musk paid $44bn in October 2022 for the social media platform, which he
rebranded the following year as X, Gary Rooney was a director of
“source-to-pay”, a procurement role, in Twitter International’s Dublin office.
Within weeks of the takeover, the billionaire sent a message to staff outlining
his vision for the business.
“Going forward, to build a breakthrough Twitter 2.0 and succeed in an
increasingly competitive world, we will need to be extremely hardcore,” the
South Africa-born entrepreneur wrote.
“This will mean working long hours at high intensity. Only exceptional
performance will constitute a passing a grade.”
The message was known as the “Fork in the Road”, a phrase Musk deployed again
this week in reference to America, during an interview late on Monday with
former president Donald Trump, who the Tesla boss said offered a “path to
prosperity”.
In the email, Musk wrote: “If you are sure that you want to be part of the new
Twitter, please click yes on the link below,” adding that staff who did not
would receive three months’ severance pay.
Ireland’s Workplace Relations Commission (WRC), the country’s employment
tribunal, heard that Rooney did not click “yes”.
Three days later, on 19 November, he received another email from the company
“to acknowledge your decision to resign and accept the voluntary separation
offer”.
Rooney, who had been with the company since 2013, was told that he was deemed
to have resigned on 18 November and that his access to Twitter systems had been
deactivated.
A week later, he emailed Twitter to say 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”."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
