🗞️ Labor Judge Rules Fintech Firm Illegally Fired Worker Over LinkedIn Posts Criticizing Diversity Programs
An NLRB judge found that Apex Fintech Solutions unlawfully fired an engineer who criticized its diversity programs on LinkedIn, ordering reinstatement and back pay while also finding the company's confidentiality rules and subsequent lawsuit against him violated federal labor law.
A National Labor Relations Board administrative law judge has ruled that Apex Fintech Solutions unlawfully terminated data engineer John Richardson after he published LinkedIn posts criticizing the company's diversity, equity, and inclusion practices, including a poker networking program that required participants to identify as female and a mentoring initiative open only to women. Judge Arthur J. Amchan found that Richardson's posts, which urged coworkers to raise similar concerns of their own, qualified as protected concerted activity under Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act, regardless of whether his underlying claims of discrimination were correct.
The decision, issued July 24, 2026, also found that Apex violated the law by suing Richardson for defamation after his termination and by maintaining broad confidentiality language in its employment agreements that could discourage workers from discussing perceived violations of civil rights law. Apex had argued that Richardson's posts crossed into defamatory territory by naming employees and mischaracterizing remarks made at an internal company panel, but the judge concluded Apex failed to prove any of Richardson's statements were false, in part because the company declined to call as witnesses employees who were present for the disputed remarks. According to NLRB Edge, the lawsuit was not withdrawn until October 2025, and both the NLRB's General Counsel and Apex separately urged the Board to reconsider the workplace rules standard applied in the case, even as both argued under it, reflecting broader disagreement over how far employer confidentiality policies may extend under current Board precedent.
The ruling orders reinstatement, back pay with interest, and coverage of Richardson's job search and related tax costs, along with a notice to employees describing their rights. Apex may file exceptions with the Board in Washington.
Key Points
- Richardson was fired September 1, 2023, after posting LinkedIn articles criticizing Apex's diversity programs and an HR director's remarks at an internal panel.
- The judge found Apex did not prove Richardson's statements were false and drew an adverse inference from the company's decision not to call available witnesses.
- Apex's October 2023 defamation lawsuit against Richardson, not withdrawn until October 2025, was itself found to violate federal labor law as retaliatory.
- Provisions in Apex's confidentiality and non disparagement agreement were ruled unlawfully overbroad.
- The remedy includes reinstatement, back pay, interest, and compensation for job search and tax related costs.
- The decision becomes final if neither party files exceptions with the NLRB in Washington.
Primary Source Author: Arthur J. Amchan, Administrative Law Judge, National Labor Relations Board
Primary Source: Apex Fintech Services, LLC d/b/a Apex Fintech Solutions and John D. Richardson, Case No. 12-CA-325317 (NLRB ALJ Decision JD-48-26, July 24, 2026)
Primary Source Link: www.nlrb.gov/case/12-CA-325317
