X ordered to pay ₹5 crore to employee fired for not replying to Elon Musk’s email

Aug 16, 2024 10:28 AM IST

Twitter, now rebranded X, has been ordered to pay compensation to a former employee in an unfair dismissal case. The social media platform has been asked to pay 550,000 euros ( ₹5 crore approximately) to Gary Rooney, who was fired in December 2022 after Elon Musk’s takeover of the company.

According to a report in Fortune, Rooney had been working at Twitter’s Ireland unit since September 2013. On Tuesday, Ireland’s Workplace Relations Commission held that he had been unfairly dismissed in December 2022 and ordered X to pay him 550,000 euros. This is the largest sum ever awarded by the agency.

What led to the dismissal

In November 2022, shortly after his takeover of Twitter, Elon Musk sent a company-wide email demanding employees commit to working “long hours at high intensity” or receive “three months of severance.” Employees, including Rooney, were given one day to click “yes” on the email to accept the new working conditions laid out by Musk, who was then acting as CEO of Twitter.

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.” He said that employees who did not do so would receive three months of severance pay.

X argued that Rooney had resigned voluntarily after failing to click “yes” on Elon Musk’s ultimatum.

The Irish Workplace Relations Commission, however, refused to buy this argument. “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.

Tesla billionaire Elon Musk acquired Twitter in October 2022 in a $44 billion deal. He laid off almost half the employees shortly after his takeover of the company, and sent the hardcore ultimatum to the remaining staff.