Twitter Inc. resolved a dispute with a top executive who was shut out of the firm’s IT system after failing to respond within hours to a companywide email from Elon Musk asking staff if they were onboard with the new “Twitter 2.0.”
(Bloomberg) — Twitter Inc. resolved a dispute with a top executive who was shut out of the firm’s IT system after failing to respond within hours to a companywide email from Elon Musk asking staff if they were onboard with the new “Twitter 2.0.”
Sinead McSweeney, Twitter’s global vice-president for public policy, last month won a temporary court injunction stopping Twitter from officially firing her, and was reinstated in her job, but didn’t get all the assurances she had sought. A court in Dublin was told on Tuesday that the case has now been settled.
Frank Beatty, McSweeney’s lawyer, told Justice Brian O’Moore in a five-minute hearing on Tuesday that the dispute “has been resolved.” No details about the deal were given and lawyers declined to answer questions after the hearing.
Twitter staff have ridden a rollercoaster since Musk’s takeover in October. He’s warned that Twitter is at risk of bankruptcy and instituted what he called a “hardcore” work environment after a drastic cutback in staff. In less than two months at the helm, he has spooked advertisers, alienated Twitter’s most ardent creators and turned the service from a forum for news discussion into a trending topic in itself.
Read more: Musk Narrows Voting on Twitter Policy to Blue Members After Poll
In a Nov. 16 email, Musk asked staff to confirm if they wanted to stay on at the new Twitter which would require them to be “extremely hardcore” and work “long hours.” McSweeney didn’t respond immediately with a yes and on Nov. 18, she noticed she’d been locked out of the firm’s IT systems and treated as if she no longer worked there.
McSweeney joined Twitter in 2012 as its public policy director for EMEA. She was regularly promoted and a year ago became the company’ global vice-president for public policy. She said she didn’t click yes “due to the lack of information and transparency” though she “never had any intention of resigning as I love my job and trust my employer.”
Court documents show that after initial exchanges between her lawyer and Twitter following the Nov. 16 email, McSweeney got the necessary assurances that her job was safe and she could return. But when she did so on Nov. 24, to prepare for a meeting that day with EU Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders, she couldn’t access Twitter’s premises.
She found out that despite Twitter’s assurances, people had been informed she no longer worked there and someone else had already stepped in to the role.
Twitter “cannot be trusted,” she said in court documents last month, in which she sought an injunction. Musk is managing Twitter “in a very unorthodox manner and has been firing, re-hiring and firing staff with no apparent logic,” she said.
Twitter didn’t immediately respond to an email sent to its press team.
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