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The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has filed a case against X (formerly known as Twitter) for illegally firing an employee. The official complaint states that the company fired the employee for criticizing its return-to-office policy after the Elon Musk takeover last year, CNBC reports.
X sued for firing an employee who criticized its in-office work policy
In October 2022, Elon Musk completed his $44 billion purchase of X (called Twitter then) and immediately announced several changes. He laid off thousands of employees to reduce operational costs and asked the remaining people to work overtime to reshape the social networking app according to his vision. To pull this off as early as possible, Musk urged all employees working remotely to return to offices.
The new X owner allegedly threatened to fire those who didn’t comply. “If you can physically make it to an office and you don’t show up, resignation accepted,” Musk told employees, according to the NLRB. Unsurprisingly, many workers were upset with the sudden change in work policy. The official complaint says employees expressed “concern and outrage” over Musk’s directive to return to the office immediately.
Yao Yue, who was a principal software engineer at X and had worked at the company for 12 years, raised her voice against it. “Don’t resign, let him fire you. You gain literally nothing out of resignation,” she tweeted shortly after Musk’s ultimatum. Yue also posted the same message on one of the company’s official Slack channels, encouraging co-workers to not quit and instead let X fire them. Many of her colleagues responded.
In the meantime, Musk directed the management team to scan Slack and online platforms to identify employees “who should be fired.” Five days later, X fired Yue saying that she violated a company policy, though it failed to specify the policy in question. “Ms. Yue alleges that Twitter chose her for layoff in retaliation for her attempt to organize her co-workers not to resign, so they would have better legal footing to challenge any separation from Twitter,” the NLRB said.
X violated the National Labor Relations Act
According to NLRB’s complaint filed on Friday, X violated the National Labor Relations Act in firing Yue. In its complaint, the Board added that the company has “been interfering with, restraining, and coercing employees in the exercise of the rights guaranteed” under national labor law.
It’s seeking to “make Yao Yue whole for any direct or foreseeable pecuniary harm, as well as other consequential damages suffered as a result of Respondent’s unlawful conduct.” The NLRB is also seeking the court to provide “all other relief as may be just and proper to remedy the unfair labor practices alleged.” A hearing on the case will take place on January 30, 2024, in San Francisco.
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