X (formally Twitter) has been ordered to pay more than €550,000 compensation to a former senior executive based in Ireland, in another notable ruling by Ireland’s Workplace Relations Commission (WRC).
The award is a record in Ireland for a case of unfair dismissal.
X claimed that the employee had resigned because he had failed to confirm agreement to new pay and conditions.
The request to confirm was sent via email from Elon Musk in November 2022. In the email, Twitter’s new owner advised employees that building a breakthrough Twitter 2.0 would mean working long hours at high intensity. The email concluded with a requirement for the recipient employees to click “yes” on a link at the bottom of the email and stated that anyone who had not done so by 5pm the following day, would receive three months severance.
The day after this initial email, the employee received another which stated that failure to confirm would equate to resignation for which statutory redundancy or other termination payments would not apply unless otherwise required by local law.
During the 5-day hearing, the employee’s legal representatives argued that accepting Twitter’s request would “represent a radical change in employment law in Ireland”.
X denied the employee had been dismissed and claimed he was entirely responsible for his loss by failing to click “yes” to Mr Musk’s email. They maintained that because the employee had made a conscious decision not to click “yes”, he knew that he was resigning his role.
In a 73-page ruling, the WRC adjudication officer concluded X’s actions towards the employee were a dismissal “in fact and in law”.
He said the dismissal was unfair due to the absence of any substantial grounds to justify termination of employment and that allowing 24 hours to respond to the email could not be considered “reasonable notice”.
The employee had worked with Twitter for over 9 years but in November 2022, his access to X’s systems and network were barred and he then received an automated message the following day acknowledging his “decision to resign”. In December, he was given a draft severance agreement worth €22,834 which would be valid for 2 weeks and withdrawn if it not accepted by the employee within that timeframe. His employment was officially terminated on December 18th, 2022.
At that time, his total compensation package of €369,937, including a basic salary of €137,000 plus a 30% performance related bonus.
Ordering X to pay a total compensation of €550,131 for unfair dismissal, the WRC said the amount included compensation for future loss of earnings.