Unfair Firing: Record Compensation for Twitter Employees

Former Twitter employee (now

Gary Rooney was the head of purchasing at Twitter’s international office in Dublin, according to The Guardian. Just weeks after taking over the platform, new owner Elon Musk sent an email to all employees outlining his vision for the company.

Pledge allegiance with one click of the mouse

Musk said that in order to “build a groundbreaking Twitter 2.0,” he expected employees to work extremely hard, for long periods of time, and to perform exceptionally well. Rooney never clicked on the following link, where employees were supposed to affirm that they represented Musk’s vision. Three days later, he received an email informing him that he was voluntarily terminating his contract.

Ronnie explained that he did not respond to the email immediately because he feared it was spam. He had never seen or signed the separation agreement.

In a 73-page decision document, WRC referee Michael McNamee stated that 24 hours was not a “reasonable period of notice”. Rooney's lawyer Barry Kenny welcomed the “clear and unambiguous conclusion” that his client had not resigned but had been unfairly dismissed.