GitHub admits that a Jewish employee was accidentally fired and returned his job. The news comes after the company hired an independent law firm to investigate the termination, finding that ‘significant mistakes had been made’. The head of HR, Carrie Olesen, also resigned.
“Last night, the investigation concluded that significant mistakes had been made that were not in line with our internal practices or the judgment we expect from our leaders,” GitHub CEO Nat Friedman said in an internal message on January 16. written to employees. He said the company will issue a public apology on its blog this weekend.
In the report, GitHub CEO Erica Brescia said: “We want to say to the employee in public: we sincerely apologize.”
The controversial shooting took place just two days after the employee warned colleagues in Washington DC to stay safe from Nazis Business Insider. He posted the message on January 6, the day of the uprising in Washington DC, while rioters linked to neo-Nazi organizations stormed the Capitol.
The warning drew criticism from a colleague who took offense at using the word “Nazi” and asked GitHub’s HR team to reprimand the Jewish employee. Two days later, he was fired.
In the wake of the termination, about 200 of GitHub’s 1,700 employees signed an open letter to clarify why the employee was fired. Workers also began using the word “Nazi” repeatedly in Slack to describe the rioters in DC.
‘Others have said it, but I just want to say it explicitly myself. “I think the Nazis were present at some of the protests on January 6, and it’s very scary to see the ideas, ‘wrote one engineer in Slack. ‘100% Nazis were there, and 1 billion% Nazis are scared as fuck and belong nowhere. SPECIAL AT GitHub! Replied another.
In his note to employees of the weekend, Friedman stressed that employees (whom the company calls ‘hubbers’) are allowed to talk about their fears regarding white supremacists. “Hubbers are free to express their concerns about neo-Nazis, anti-Semitism, white supremacy or any other form of discrimination or harassment,” he wrote. “And, of course, we expect Hubbers to be respectful, professional, and to follow GitHub policies at all times on discrimination and harassment.”