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🗞️ No BS, Except About the Boss: Atlassian Loses Labor Ruling Over Fired Engineer

An NLRB judge ruled Atlassian illegally fired a senior engineer over internal posts criticizing leadership, ordering reinstatement and back pay. The judge also struck down parts of its severance agreements and workplace speech rules.

onthelaborfront

onthelaborfront

— 2 min read
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🗞️ No BS, Except About the Boss: Atlassian Loses Labor Ruling Over Fired Engineer

A National Labor Relations Board administrative law judge has found that Atlassian US, Inc. violated federal labor law when it terminated Denise Unterwurzacher, an Austin based senior site reliability engineer, after she posted a series of critical messages on the company's internal communication channels between 2019 and 2023. Judge Susannah Merritt concluded that Unterwurzacher's posts, which questioned a job title overhaul, warned colleagues about a new "stack ranking" performance review system, and criticized co founder Mike Cannon-Brookes' tone after a town hall on the elimination of front line manager roles, all amounted to protected activity under Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act because they raised shared workplace concerns rather than purely personal grievances.

Atlassian argued it fired Unterwurzacher solely over her final comment, a sarcastic reference to Cannon-Brookes appearing at the town hall from the headquarters of the Utah Jazz, the NBA team he co owns, while employees worried about losing their jobs. The judge rejected that framing, pointing to Atlassian's own termination email, which cited a broader pattern of communications dating back to 2019, and noted that other employees who made comparable remarks in the same Slack channel that day were not disciplined.

The decision also found that two versions of a severance agreement offered to Unterwurzacher contained overly broad confidentiality and nondisparagement clauses, contrary to the Board's 2023 standard set in McLaren Macomb, and that four rules in Atlassian's Community Guidelines, including a ban on employees making workplace "demands" and a broad restriction on comments that could affect partners, shareholders, or customers, were unlawfully vague under the Board's Stericycle framework. The judge ordered reinstatement, back pay, removal of disciplinary records, and rescission of the affected policy language. Atlassian has not publicly commented on the specific findings, and as an administrative law judge's decision, the ruling can still be appealed to the full Board.

Key Points

  • Judge Susannah Merritt found Atlassian violated Section 8(a)(1) of the NLRA by firing Denise Unterwurzacher for protected concerted activity.
  • Three internal posts, from 2019, May 2023, and June 2023, were each found protected because they addressed shared employee concerns rather than personal complaints.
  • Atlassian said it fired her solely over a comment referencing co founder Mike Cannon-Brookes appearing at a town hall from an NBA team's headquarters, but the judge found this was part of a broader pattern the company itself cited in her termination email.
  • The ruling found Atlassian did not discipline other employees who made comparable remarks in the same Slack channel that day.
  • Two versions of a severance agreement offered to Unterwurzacher contained confidentiality and nondisparagement clauses the judge found unlawfully broad under existing Board precedent.
  • Four rules in Atlassian's Community Guidelines were also ruled unlawfully vague and ordered rescinded.
  • The judge ordered reinstatement, back pay with interest, expungement of disciplinary records, and written notice to employees.

Primary Source Author: Susannah Merritt, U.S. Administrative Law Judge, National Labor Relations Board
Primary Source: Administrative Law Judge's Decision, Case 16-CA-324971, Atlassian Corp. and Denise Unterwurzacher (JD-43-26)
Primary Source Link: nlrb.gov/case/16-CA-324971

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