Ireland: WRC Awards Record Compensation to Former Senior Executive of Twitter

Mr. Rooney, a former senior executive with Twitter, claimed his employment was terminated by Twitter after he failed to click “yes” in reply to an email received from the company’s owner, Elon Musk, regarding new unspecified pay and conditions. The email in question gave employees a one-day deadline to respond. Mr. Rooney had over 9 years of service when his employment was terminated.

In the email, Elon Musk informed employees that to “build a breakthrough Twitter 2.0 and succeed in an increasingly competitive world, we will need to be extremely hardcore. This will mean working long hours at high intensity. Only exceptional performance will constitute a passing grade.” The email required employees to click “yes” in a link at the bottom of the email, and it also stated that “Anyone has [sic] not done so by 5pm ET tomorrow will receive three months of severance.”

Mr. Rooney was provided with a draft severance agreement with a sum of €22,384 provided therein, which, he was told, would be withdrawn if it was not accepted within two weeks.  Mr. Rooney earned a total (gross) annual remuneration package of €369,937 at the time.  Following the termination of his employment by Twitter, Mr. Rooney gave evidence at his unfair dismissal claim hearing that he was unable to find a similar position. However, he did ultimately secure new employment in September 2023, albeit on a lower annual gross remuneration package of €129,897.

Mr. Rooney sought the maximum award of two years’ remuneration in his claim. In its defence, Twitter argued that, in failing to respond, Mr. Rooney had resigned and was responsible for his own loss. Twitter also argued that Mr. Rooney’s contract of employment permitted the company to make reasonable changes to employees’ terms and conditions.

The Irish Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) found that the decision not to click “yes” in response to the email was not capable of constituting an act of resignation and that permitting employees with only 24 hours’ notice to respond could not be considered “reasonable notice” in which to make an informed decision.

The WRC held that the dismissal of Mr. Rooney was unfair due to the lack of any substantial grounds justifying the termination and awarded total compensation of €550,131 for the unfair dismissal, of which €200,000 was for prospective future loss of earnings.