Gary Rooney awarded €201,458 for unfair dismissal by Labour Court

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

Gary Rooney was awarded €201,458 for unfair dismissal by the Labour Court, as reported on 17 April 2026.

The court found X unfairly dismissed Rooney after he failed to respond to Elon Musk’s “Fork in the Road” email. It reduced the Workplace Relations Commission award from €550,131, excluding scheduled restricted share unit payments from its calculation of losses.

The Labour Court rejected X’s contention that Rooney had resigned by not ticking the box. It found the company set an arbitrary deadline, provided insufficient information for an informed decision and treated him as having resigned without any communicated intention to do so.

The award comprised €113,419 for the period Rooney was unemployed, €47,988 for losses in an initial period with his new employer, €8,010 for losses after a pay rise and €32,041 for future losses.