Atlassian employee who ribbed Mike Cannon-Brookes’ basketball team ownership wins unfair dismissal case
Noam Scheiber
As tech workers have become more outspoken at work over the past decade, companies often fire or discipline those they say go too far. It is rare for workers to have legal recourse.
But a recent decision is a rare exception. An administrative law judge for the National Labor Relations Board in the United States found on July 1 that software company Atlassian illegally fired an engineer in 2023 who opposed executive firings and other policy changes.
The ruling held that engineer Denise Unterwurzacher had the right to make such federally backed comments because she made them as part of a collective effort to help or protect her co-workers.
The judge ordered the company to reinstate Unterwurzacher to his old job or an equivalent position and make him financially whole. This is one of the most significant outcomes in years of a case involving the labor rights of a tech worker.
“I pursued this case not only for myself, but also for the rights of those who continue to work at Atlassian and the technology industry more broadly,” Unterwurzacher said in a statement.
During the lawsuit, Atlassian argued that Unterwurzacher was fired for violating company rules requiring employees to act civilly and refrain from ad hominem attacks on each other.
“We believe we must uphold our company values and community guidelines to ensure our workplace is safe and respectful for everyone,” Atlassian said in a statement after the decision was announced. he said. The company said it planned to appeal to the labor board in Washington, so it was “inappropriate to comment further.” Unterwurzacher’s reinstatement and financial compensation will depend on the appeal process.
Tensions like the one between Unterwurzacher and Atlassian have become more evident at tech companies in recent years. Employees have long viewed themselves as part of a professional elite who enjoy generous pay and perks and have a collaborative relationship with management.
But over the past decade, that relationship has begun to change, even as the industry has become a driving force of the U.S. economy. Workers exploited gaps between company policies and long-standing tenets, such as “do no evil,” which was once Google’s unofficial motto.
Some protested their employers’ contracts with the Trump administration or the Israeli government, and companies responded by disciplining or firing workers who disrupted work or endangered the safety of co-workers.
Starting in 2022, major tech companies have embarked on waves of layoffs and reoriented their businesses around AI, often leaving their workforces feeling vulnerable and micromanaged.
“People-organizing issues really seem to have shifted to AI,” said Emily Mazo, a doctoral student at Columbia University who studies tech worker activism. Mazo said workers are concerned about both the possible social dangers of artificial intelligence and its impact on their job security and working conditions.
The Atlassian case dates back to 2019, when Unterwurzacher posted skeptical comments on a company messaging platform in response to an announcement about job title changes, according to the judge’s decision.
The company fired him in June 2023 after two incidents, including a sarcastic insinuation that the Atlassian founder was a partial owner of the Utah Jazz basketball team. “I was calling from my NBA team’s headquarters to yell at people whose careers I had ruined,” he wrote.
In a subsequent meeting with an employee relations officer, Unterwurzacher was told that he had exhibited a habit of violating company rules and that his behavior had not improved after repeated coaching, according to the decision.
Unterwurzacher said in an interview that he received no formal coaching, only informal help from company officials, and that his comments were similar to employee jokes common on internal channels.
He said he believed the company fired him because it was trying to rein in its culture of openness, given the sharp decline in share prices, and that he was known as an outspoken person. “I believe they fired me to silence me and scare anyone still working at Atlassian into not speaking up,” he said.
Atlassian argued that Unterwurzacher’s comment in the third case was particularly personal. The company has disciplined employees for violating such rules on other occasions, a spokesman said, and that the company has sought to preserve its culture of openness rather than curb it by cracking down on workers who abuse its norms and treat each other with disrespect.
Following his firing, Unterwurzacher filed a criminal complaint with the NLRB. The agency found the accusation justified and filed a lawsuit against Atlassian.
Judge Susannah Merritt concluded that the company’s code of conduct was illegal because it could prevent employees from asking legitimate questions about managers’ actions. He said Unterwurzacher’s comments were protected by law because they reflected widespread concerns about the company’s treatment of employees. The judge also noted that other workers had made worse comments than Unterwurzacher’s and were not fired.
Laurie Burgess, an attorney who has represented a number of tech workers in NLRB cases, said most tech workers are unaware of their workers’ rights and never file a complaint with the agency. Many NLRB charges were dismissed before the agency filed a complaint, Burgess said.
The cases of a handful of tech workers have gained attention. In 2020, the labor board filed a complaint against Google for the dismissal of employees who participated in protests at the company. Later, the two sides made peace.
A judge ruled in 2019 that Tesla must reinstate a factory worker it fired after participating in union organizing activities, and in 2022, another judge ordered Amazon to reinstate a warehouse worker who was fired after an outcry over safety conditions. The trial of both cases continues.
This article was first published on: New York Times.
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