Twitter has been ordered to pay €550,000 ($607,000) compensation for unfair dismissal to a former senior executive in Ireland, said to be a record amount awarded in the country over such a case.

Ireland's Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) ruled on the incident involving the former senior executive after the social media site terminated his employment, claiming he had effectively resigned by refusing to agree to new conditions.

This goes back to November 2022, shortly after billionaire Musk completed his acquisition of Twitter, which he has since rebranded as X in a genius marketing move. As its then CEO, he issued an ultimatum to all staff that they had to sign up to his "hardcore" vision for the social media platform. If they didn't sign, they were out, the Musk communiqué implied.

Musk wrote: "If you are sure that you want to be part of the new Twitter, please click yes on the link below." He is said to have added that staff who did not would receive three months' severance pay.

According to The Irish Times, Twitter decided that the former employee - which it identifies as Gary Rooney - had resigned when he then failed to tick the box. When filing the complaint, Rooney claimed it required him to agree to new and unspecified pay and conditions, within a one-day deadline.

The Guardian reports that Rooney received another email from the company three days later that said the company acknowledged his decision to resign and accept a voluntary separation offer - an offer that Rooney claimed he had not seen, nor agreed to.

In a hearing in Dublin, Twitter's senior director of human resources Lauren Wegman was reported as saying that the email was sent out to 270 employees in Ireland, of whom 235 had clicked "yes." Of the remaining 35 employees, she said: "We accepted their resignations."

However, The Irish Times says Wegman claimed at the hearing that the pay and conditions of those that clicked "yes" had not in fact been changed, and that she did not accept that any reasonable person would have thought that this was going to happen from the information in the email.

Nevertheless, Rooney's legal representatives argued that to accept Twitter's position that failing to tick a box constituted a resignation was not compatible with employment law in Ireland.

The WRC would seem to have agreed, as adjudication officer Michael MacNamee said in a 72-page ruling that has not yet been publicly published that the decision not to click "yes", should not be regarded as constituting an act of resignation and that 24 hours did not constitute reasonable notice.

As reported, Rooney was offered severance pay worth €22,834 ($25,211) on December 7 2022, which was to be withdrawn if it was not accepted within two weeks. His employment was officially terminated on December 18. He had worked for the company for more than nine years.

The compensation that the WRC has ordered Twitter to pay includes lost remuneration from January 2023 to May 2024 for Rooney, plus estimated lost future remuneration of €200,000 ($221,000).

We asked Twitter for a statement regarding the matter, to which it responded "Busy now, please check back later."

Earlier this week, it was reported that Twitter is being sued for more than $23 million by its former chairman over claims it failed to pay out the stock options he was owed by the company.

Meanwhile, Twitter is trying to sue the World Federation of Advertisers because its members are failing to advertise on the site. It was also reported this week that rival social media platform Bluesky has seen a surge in signups in the UK following controversial tweets from Musk about the recent riots in the country, so Twitter is truly covering itself in glory at the moment. ®

https://www.theregister.com//2024/08/15/twitter_unfair_dismissal/