A Jewish GitHub employee who was fired for warning co-workers in Slack to stay safe from Nazis during the January 6th attack on the US Capitol has declined to take his job back after an offer from the company, GitHub told TechCrunch.
“We offered the employee his job back immediately after reviewing the investigation findings, and he declined,” a GitHub spokesperson said to TechCrunch. GitHub shared the same statement with The Verge.
“Me and the company reached an amicable resolution,” the employee said in a statement to TechCrunch. “I appreciate that they have denounced white supremacy and the dangers it poses to everybody.” The terms of the resolution are unclear, but the employee had “previously told me he was seeking damages or some other form of reconciliation,” TechCrunch said.
GitHub fired the employee two days after he wrote “stay safe homies, Nazis are about” to colleagues in Slack on January 6th, as first reported by Business Insider. Approximately 200 of the company’s 1,700 employees signed an open letter asking the company for an explanation, and employees began using the word “Nazi” in Slack to describe the Capitol rioters.
Following an independent investigation, GitHub CEO Nat Friedman admitted that “significant mistakes were made” in an internal message to employees on January 16th, and the company offered the employee his job back. The company’s head of HR also resigned.
Update March 15th, 8:10PM ET: Added that GitHub shared a statement with The Verge.
