X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, has commenced a Labour Court appeal against a record unfair dismissal award of €550,131 to a former executive.
In a ruling last August, the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) found that Twitter had unfairly dismissed the company’s former Director of Source to Pay Gary Rooney in December 2022.
Mr Rooney had failed to respond to the “Fork in the Road” email from X owner Elon Musk in November 2022, in which employees were asked to click “yes” if they wanted to remain on with the company, adding that they would need to be “extremely hardcore” and work “long hours at high intensity”.
At today’s Labour Court hearing, Mr Rooney said there was a mood of uncertainty, fear and anxiety at Twitter when Mr Musk took over the company amid worries of layoffs.
He said redundancies were chaotic, they happened quickly and came as a surprise.
Mr Rooney was not made redundant but he was told to stop paying suppliers, something which he said he found “stressful” and “very emotional”.
He told the court that Mr Musk’s email to staff caused confusion and disbelief.
He said had no way of knowing what the implications of clicking yes would be and that he did not consider that not clicking yes meant he had resigned.
Mr Rooney said he would have turned up for work the next day if his access to company systems had not been terminated.
“I had invested a lot in my career in Twitter, I was in a good position and I was on a good salary but being given 12 hours to make a decision of that magnitude was not reasonable,” Mr Rooney told the court.
In his opening address, Padraic Lyons SC for Mr Rooney said there was a very sudden change at Twitter following Mr Musk’s acquisition of the company in 2022, which almost immediately manifested itself as an attempt to dismantle employment rules and norms.
He said Mr Musk’s email to staff was “extraordinary and unprecedented”, so much so that the company had to clarify that it was a genuine email.
“When Mr Rooney declined to click yes, he was dismissed,” Mr Lyons told the court.
“This is a paradigm case of direct unfair dismissal,” he added.
Mr Lyons told the court that Mr Rooney was without work for nine months before finding a lower paid job.
He said they have calculated Mr Rooney’s remuneration for 2022 at €344,703 made up of a base salary of €137,000 as well as employer contributions, bonuses and benefits.
Mr Lyons told the court that Mr Rooney has suffered a nine-month loss of earnings, and an ongoing gap in the earnings he previously received.
He told the court that the loss currently stands at €630,000, with an ongoing loss of €17,000 per month.
Mr Lyons said it is “right, just and equitable” that Mr Rooney gets the maximum unfair dismissals award of two years remuneration which they have calculated to be €689,406.
Cathy Smith SC for X said this was not a case of dismissal.
She said there was no threat of dismissal and no proposal to terminate Mr Rooney’s employment.
Ms Smith told the court that the Twitter group was in financial trouble and went through significant headcount reductions, including compulsory redundancies, but Mr Rooney’s role was not identified as a role for redundancy.
She said Elon Musk’s email was not a dismissal, it was an offer of severance if people did not wish to remain with Twitter.
“It was a decision entirely for employees to make,” she said, describing it as an “enhanced opportunity”.
Ms Smith said Mr Rooney understood what this meant and that he communicated the decision he made.
She told the court that it was perfectly clear from Mr Rooney’s words and conduct that he was leaving, adding that he had expressed his goodbyes to colleagues.
She said he remained in employment at Twitter for a month and in that time never raised a grievance or asked to come back into work.
Ms Smith also questioned the award figure proposed by Mr Rooney’s side of €689,406 stating that she had no idea where it came from and suggested that it was wildly inaccurate.
She said a performance bonus should not be included as salary as it was a discretionary payment.
She added that it was problematic to include shares, as staff did not have share options, they had restricted stock units.
In cross examination, Ms Smith asked Mr Rooney about messages with colleagues in which he said he had decided not to click yes, was not staying at Twitter and was saying goodbye.
Mr Rooney said he had decided not to click yes but had not decided to resign.
He said the reason for the goodbye messages was that he knew he was likely to lose access to company systems and his ability to communicate with co-workers.
The hearing will continue tomorrow.
