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X ordered to pay €550k to Irish employee fired after yes-or-resign ultimatum

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121–130 of 474 posts

Re: X ordered to pay €550k to Irish employee fired after yes-or-resign ultimatum

#121
post #6

I am glad to hear that workers rights are being enforced in Europe. As an employee in Germany, it sounds deranged to receive an email saying I have one day to completely change my work contract, or be fired from my job.

Must be nice to live in a civilized society like that.

[dead]

Re: X ordered to pay €550k to Irish employee fired after yes-or-resign ultimatum

#122
post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't wait until the US wakes up and we get an endless 'that's why the startup/innovation culture in the EU sucks and will never be comparable to the US'

Is it wrong for people to voice views that you disagree with? The value of HN is hearing differing view points. It would be nice if people on HN tried to engage in a good willed nature rather than treating discussions like a struggle session. But to the topic at hand, in rapidly changing sectors, high levels of friction when it comes to employment has a cost. There is no free lunch in economics. When hiring employees…

That is unbelievable to me. You always have the right to quit, and penalties are rare. The laws depend on the country you're in of course, but I've never heard of three months, and I've lived in Europe my whole life.

Would you mind sharing the country you were working in?

Re: X ordered to pay €550k to Irish employee fired after yes-or-resign ultimatum

#123
post #4

Would this be legal in any jurisdiction (click-or-be-fired)? I am not familiar with US labour laws, are employees actually at the level of indentured servants considering terms of employment (which I would expect to be a contract between TWO parties)?

Right to Work laws, despite the name makes pretty much any firing legal. Unless an employer says something like "You are my least favorite race and for that reason I'm firing you" they're in the clear.

"Right to work" is an anti union provision and has nothing to do with being fired.

You might be thinking of "at will employment" - which is the case in 49 of 50 states.

Re: X ordered to pay €550k to Irish employee fired after yes-or-resign ultimatum

#124
post #58

If this is allowed, the concept of a contract is meaningless, as all terms change whenever one party feels like it. So Musk feels to be above contract law. The whole basis for law based commerce goes out of the window. Musk's world view is incredibly dangerous for a law based country. This means €550k is a way to low number as punishment. It might be enough as restitution for the employee, but an additional, much str…

It's even worse, he can get out of paying that in a number of ways. If he simply refuses to pay, the employee needs to sue. He can play for time and later declare bankruptcy in the European subsidiaries that have too many legal costs racking up. IANAL, so I might be wrong about some of this, but I did see things play out like this. The employee OTOH has probably had to deplete quite a few savings to afford to go thro…

I think you’re wrong there. Once the company is out of appeals (which should be soon for labour stuff), it will AIUI have a debt to the employee. The employee can then ask a court to enforce the debt, after which they can instruct a sheriff to seize goods (a sheriff in the Irish system is pretty different to a US one). However in practice most companies, unless they’re basically already dead, are going to pay a relatively small creditor, because they presumably need credit to operate normally.

Re: X ordered to pay €550k to Irish employee fired after yes-or-resign ultimatum

#125
post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't wait until the US wakes up and we get an endless 'that's why the startup/innovation culture in the EU sucks and will never be comparable to the US'

Is it wrong for people to voice views that you disagree with? The value of HN is hearing differing view points. It would be nice if people on HN tried to engage in a good willed nature rather than treating discussions like a struggle session. But to the topic at hand, in rapidly changing sectors, high levels of friction when it comes to employment has a cost. There is no free lunch in economics. When hiring employees…

The problem on such discussion that many Americans (I am not sure if you are but experience says yes you're) tend to use only straw man arguments (and that's why the reason they are ignored) "When hiring employees means you’re hiring them effectively for life, it creates disincentives for hiring. "

In Germany it is not the case.

"The other thing is the employee obligations it creates. When I worked in Europ" Europe is a big place and working law in the EU (and outside too!) is in the charge of national law. Where have you been living ?

In Germany you can talk to company to quit earlier because these quitting comworkers tend to be rather unproductive.

Re: X ordered to pay €550k to Irish employee fired after yes-or-resign ultimatum

#126
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, to me as a European, this feels like a very high number already.

Wages in America must be truly incredible for this to seem normal. I know so many full time developers on a tenth of that.

This is someone who’s worked for Twitter, which at least historically paid Big Tech(tm)-ish wages, for over a decade, and is in a pretty senior position.

Re: X ordered to pay €550k to Irish employee fired after yes-or-resign ultimatum

#127
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And the money is not the only problem, Europe is CHEAP compared to America, it's fascinating. I heard that wges are less than 50% but you end up saving more

> Europe is CHEAP compared to America, it's fascinating. Yup. Cost of living is insanely low compared to the US, even when just comparing hotbeds like Silicon Valley vs London/Berlin/Munich, with the largest factor being housing. Additionally, healthcare costs are far lower as well - there is no such thing as co-pays, surprise bills and whatnot here (although I do admit some things like dental and vision care aren't…

Interesting, but as someone who visits the USA sometimes for short work/tourist trips, food and drinks are much cheaper pretty much anywhere except maybe California. And because that's most of what you spend on during short trips, not counting hotels (which are about the same price as Europe) to me the USA is a paradise of cheap drinks and large meals :D (but yeah, Europe wins on quality).

Re: X ordered to pay €550k to Irish employee fired after yes-or-resign ultimatum

#130

It’s really hard to know what to think about Elon Musk these days. At a surface level he’s acting a real asshole in a bunch of ways, but he’s surprised us with some seriously useful stuff on a number of occasions and so I’m always still hoping that there’s got to be a method to the madness. I sure hope there is because the guy is in the running for most powerful man in history.

My interpretation is he just cares a lot more about tech than people, for better or worse.
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