Judge Orders Atlassian to Reinstate Fired Engineer in 2023 Labor Rights Case

Q: Can you now legally criticize your CEO on Slack without getting fired?

Yes—but only in a narrow, fact-specific way. The Atlassian ruling does not create a general right to insult a CEO on Slack. What it does reinforce is that most private-sector employees, even in non-union tech workplaces, are protected by Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act when they speak with or on behalf of co-workers about wages, layoffs, workload, management changes, or other working conditions. That is why Denise Unterwurzacher won. The judge found her Slack criticism of Atlassian’s CEO during layoffs was tied to a collective workplace dispute and aimed at protecting co-workers, not just a personal outburst. In that setting, Atlassian’s civility and anti–ad hominem rules could not override federal labor protections. But the protection has limits. If the message is just a personal attack, unrelated to workplace conditions, knowingly false, discriminatory, threatening, or reveals confidential business information, it can still fall outside the law’s protection. Employers also still fire people in these cases; the legal question is whether that firing is lawful, and NLRB cases can take years. So the practical answer is this: criticism of a CEO on Slack is more likely to be legally protected if it is about shared job concerns and part of a collective discussion or advocacy effort. It is much less protected if it is simply abusive or purely personal. The Atlassian case is a significant win for tech workers, but not a blanket license to say anything about the boss.

3 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Jul 10

A National Labor Relations Board judge ruled on July 1 that Atlassian illegally fired engineer Denise Unterwurzacher and ordered the company to reinstate her or place her in an equivalent role.
The judge found her 2023 criticism of manager layoffs and other policy changes was protected concerted activity under federal labor law because she spoke as part of a collective effort to aid co-workers.
Atlassian had argued it dismissed her for violating workplace civility rules and making ad hominem attacks, but the ruling also requires the company to make her financially whole.
The decision marks a rare legal victory for a tech worker in disputes over employee speech, an area where outspoken workers have often been fired or disciplined with little recourse.