Labour Court set to hear Elon Musk's X appeal against unfair dismissal award of €550,131 

Workplace Relations Commission found company had unfairly dismissed director who did not respond to Elon Musk's 'Fork in the Road' email in November 2022

On November 16, 2022, the Twitter workforce received an email from Elon Musk, who said: '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.'

The Labour Court has set aside three days at the end of next month to hear Elon Musk’s X appeal against a ruling it must pay out an Irish record unfair dismissal award of €550,131 to a former executive.

In the ruling last August, Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) adjudicator Michael MacNamee found Twitter International UC — since renamed X Internet Unlimited Company — unfairly dismissed the company’s former director source to pay, Gary Rooney, in December 2022 after he failed to respond to Elon Musk’s ‘Fork in the Road’ email.

Mr Rooney has yet to receive any of the monies as the case is before the Labour Court on appeal from Twitter International UC.

Today, solicitor for Mr Rooney, Barry Kenny of Kenny Sullivan Solicitors in Bray, confirmed the case “is listed for hearing in the Labour Court on July 29 for three days”.

Mr Kenny said: “My client is anxious to put all this all behind him.” 

“The WRC determined that X’s treatment of him as a long standing and loyal employee amounted to an unfair dismissal. Mr Rooney is anxious that the Labour Court will affirm this decision.” 

“Mr Rooney is also hopeful that the claim under the Payment of Wages Act and his loss of income arising due to the fact that he was unfairly dismissed is also affirmed," Mr Kenny said.

“It is open to the Labour Court to increase or reduce sums awarded in the WRC as it will be a De Novo hearing.” 

He said “X have advised that they intend to call at least three witnesses, some or all of them may be giving evidence remotely from the USA.

“Mr Rooney is the only witness in his own case."

At the WRC, Twitter International UC fully contested Mr Rooney’s claim over five days of hearing, contending he had resigned voluntarily.

In his findings, Mr MacNamee found Mr Rooney was dismissed because he did not click “yes” to Elon Musk’s ‘Fork in the Road’ email on November 16, 2022, and for that reason alone.

On November 16, 2022, Mr Rooney and the Twitter workforce received an email from Mr Musk, who said: “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 a grade.[....] 

“If you are sure that you want to be part of the new Twitter, please click yes on the link below.” 

After Mr Rooney opted not to click "yes" on the link, three days later, on November 19, 2022, Mr Rooney received a further company email which stated it was “to acknowledge your decision to resign and accept the voluntary separation offer”.

On November 26, 2022, Mr Rooney — who had worked for the company since 2013 — emailed his employer to outline “that at no time have I indicated to Twitter that I am resigning my position, nor have I seen any separation agreement let alone accepted one”.

In evidence, Mr Rooney told the WRC that prior to the change of ownership, he loved his job.

On receiving Mr Musk’s ‘Fork in the Road’ email, Mr Rooney said his first reaction was disbelief, and he was initially afraid even to open it for fear it was spam or malware.

Twitter International UC's senior director of human resources Lauren Wegman told the hearing Mr Musk’s 'Fork in the Road' email was sent to 270 employees in Ireland, which was the balance of workers not affected by redundancies and 235 clicked “yes”.

In relation to the remaining 35 employees, Ms Wegman said: “We accepted their resignations.”

Ms Wegman said the mood among workers at the time was mixed, with some excited about “Twitter 2.0”, while others were more negative and wanted out of the company.

The record €550,131 award was made up of Mr Rooney’s remuneration losses of €350,131 from January 2023 to May 2024, and estimated future remuneration losses of €200,000.

The remuneration losses were based on Mr Rooney’s Twitter remuneration of €323,560, made up of €151,225 in pay and €172,335 in deferred cash consideration.

Mr Rooney secured a new role with an employer in the banking sector in September 2023, on total remuneration of €129,897.