The takeover of Twitter by billionaire businessman Elon Musk in 2022 created “uncertainty and fear” among staff after they were given less than 48 hours to make a decision about their future with the company, the Labour Court has heard. A former senior executive in the company’s Dublin office, Gary Rooney, told a hearing on Tuesday that he was given “an ultimatum to sign up to a new reality” following Mr Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of the social media platform (now known as X). Mr Rooney described the change in the business after the billionaire’s takeover as “fairly chaotic.” The claim was made during an appeal by Twitter International against a ruling by the Workplace Relations Commission that it should pay a record award of €550,131 in compensation to Mr Rooney after ruling that he had been unfairly dismissed from his job. Mr Rooney is separately appealing the award amount and claiming the figure should be €689,406 to represent the maximum sum of two years’ remuneration. He estimates his ongoing monthly loss at €16,753. The Labour Court heard his total remuneration for 2022 was €344,703, including a basic salary of €137,000 plus bonuses, pension contributions and other benefits, including restricted stock units. Mr Rooney, who was Director of Source to Pay with Twitter, claims the company decided he had resigned when he failed to click a button requiring him to agree new, unspecified pay and conditions within a short deadline in response to an e-mail entitled “A Fork in the Road” from Mr Musk on November 16th, 2022. However, Twitter maintains that Mr Rooney was never dismissed, and it was perfectly clear that he was choosing to leave the organisation when he decided not to click a “Yes” button. Twitter is also disputing that restricted stock units awarded on a discretionary basis should be part of the calculation of his remuneration and claims Mr Rooney’s estimated losses are “wildly inaccurate.” In evidence, Mr Rooney said he never considered that he had resigned from the company. He claimed Mr Musk’s takeover of the company was “very consequential” as there were rumours of substantial layoffs among its workforce. “The prevailing mood was anxiety and fear about what could come down the road,” he recalled. The three-person Labour Court division, chaired by Louise O’Donnell, heard 50 per cent of Twitter’s global staff were made redundant within two weeks, while Mr Rooney had no time to argue a case for keeping his own team of nine employees. He noted that all decisions were being made by a small team of people from other companies owned by Mr Musk, such as Tesla and SpaceX. Mr Rooney told his counsel, Padraic Lyons SC, that an instruction to stop all payments to suppliers as well as expenses to staff resulted in a “very stressful” and “very emotional time.” He recalled seeing Mr Musk’s email for the first time when he was on a DART at around 8am on November 16th, 2022. “I really didn’t know what to think or what it would mean,” he added. In the e-mail, staff were told that they would need to be “extremely hardcore” in building “Twitter 2.0” and “only exceptional performance will constitute a passing grade." Anyone who did not click “yes” by 10pm Irish time the following day would receive three months’ severance. Although he always regarded himself as high performing and someone who worked long hours, Mr Rooney said he did not know if he would make the passing grade. He pointed out he received another document at 2.19am on November 17th, 2022, which sought to clarify issues about Mr Musk’s e-mail. Mr Rooney said it seemed to have been sent because the e-mail did not seem like an official communication from a head of an organisation and staff had regarded it with “confusion and disbelief.” He did not know what he was being asked to sign up to, and there was no chain of command from which he could get further information. Mr Rooney said he expected his work hours would be extended and he would be asked to work very late into the night and through weekends, which he was not prepared to do. He told the hearing that a webinar hosted from San Francisco on November 16th, 2022, had provided no extra useful information, but that Mr Musk expected a lot from his staff. The message was that Twitter’s owner was a great person and everything he did was for the betterment of humanity, Mr Rooney recalled. He claimed workers were told that they should be enthusiastic about working for the businessman “because of the person that he was.” The Labour Court heard that Mr Rooney’s access to his work computer system was cut off in the middle of the night on November 17th, 2022. He claimed Twitter had failed to reply to him within three days as promised, when he had complained that he had not resigned or even seen any separation agreement. In correspondence on December 7th, 2022, he was informed that the company was treating his decision not to click the “Yes” button as him serving notice to resign. Mr Rooney said further letters from his solicitor to Twitter did not receive any response. He claimed he was given inadequate notice to make a significant decision about his career. “To have 12 hours to make a decision of that magnitude – I don’t think that was reasonable,” he remarked. Mr Rooney gave evidence that he applied for at least 68 other positions before securing alternative employment with a large financial institution nine months later. The Labour Court heard that his current total remuneration in his new job is €135,000, including a basic salary of €109,000. Under cross-examination by counsel for Twitter, Cathy Smith SC, Mr Rooney accepted it was clear that he needed to click “Yes” if he wanted to stay working with the company. However, he claimed it was not just if you wanted to stay, but stay under new conditions which were unclear. “I did not know what pressing ‘Yes’ meant,” he remarked. Mr Rooney accepted that no threat had been made to employees, but said he disagreed with the principle of what was being done in the email. Ms Smith said he had also posted messages to colleagues that he was leaving the company, and the reality was that he did not want to work for a company owned by Mr Musk. However, Mr Rooney replied that it was “not that black and white” as he had been unhappy many times over the years with the direction of Twitter’s leadership, but he had stuck it out. He stressed he would have returned to work if access to his computer system had not been cut. In an opening submission, Mr Lyons said Mr Rooney had been an exemplary employee with long and distinguished service over nine years with Twitter. However, the barrister said Mr Musk’s acquisition of the company had resulted in a “profound attack on established norms” and an attempt to dismantle staff entitlements. He claimed the “Fork in the Road” e-mail was “totally extraordinary and unprecedented.” Mr Lyons described what happened as “a paradigm case of unfair dismissal.” However, Ms Smith disputed that Mr Rooney had been dismissed and noted his role had not been identified as redundant, despite a significant reduction in the company’s workforce. The barrister highlighted how the company’s difficulties had begun before Mr Musk’s takeover in 2022. She observed that Mr Rooney was the only person to claim he had been unfairly dismissed and to be confused about what the e-mail had meant. Ms Smith said he had also never raised a grievance before he left his employment with Twitter on December 18th, 2022. She also noted that payments to suppliers and expenses to staff had been paused to allow a complete audit of such payments to be carried out. The Labour Court heard Twitter’s global workforce has been reduced from 8,000 to just over 1,000, while the number of staff in its Dublin office has fallen from 270 to just over 100. The hearing was adjourned and will resume on Wednesday, when it is expected to conclude.