Judge dismisses lawsuit accusing X of discrimination over return-to-office policy

What just happened? Elon Musk's X received a boost this week when a California federal judge dismissed a lawsuit accusing the platform of discriminating against employees with disabilities following the billionaire's return-to-office mandate. The ruling is in contrast to a similar case at another company in the UK, where an employee was awarded $34,200.

Musk famously hates the idea of work-from-home or even hybrid work, demanding that all employees at his companies spend a minimum of 40 hours a week in the office or leave.

In 2022, Dmitry Borodaenko, a former engineering manager and cancer survivor, claimed he was fired from X for refusing to return to the office during the Covid pandemic. This mandate was introduced by Musk soon after he acquired the company.

Borodaenko's lawsuit claims X violated a federal law that requires employees to provide reasonable accommodations for workers with disabilities.

Musk's face when asked what he thinks of remote work (probably)

In November, Musk emailed staff giving them an ultimatum: they could either agree to the new, extremely hardcore "Twitter 2.0," with its 40-hour-minimum (in-office) weeks – which could average 60 hours or more – and intense workloads, or leave the company. Musk later tweeted that working from home was "morally wrong."

US District Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin disagreed with Borodaenko's view, ruling that the ban on remote work did not amount to disability discrimination.

"Borodaenko's theory improperly relies on the assumption that all employees with disabilities necessarily required remote work as a reasonable accommodation," Martinez-Olguin wrote.

The dismissal doesn't spell the end of Borodaenko's case against X. The judge gave him four weeks to file an amended lawsuit that includes more detailed claims.

This isn't the first case X and Musk have faced regarding the latter's "hardcore" email. Earlier this month, a one-time senior executive at the company's Ireland office was found to have been dismissed unfairly after he failed to click "yes" on the email, which would have confirmed that he was willing to be part of the new extreme work culture. He was awarded more than €550,000 ($602,640) following an unfair dismissal complaint.

The Borodaenko case is similar to a recent incident in the UK. Star Citizen developer Cloud Imperium Games was ordered to pay more than £27,000 ($34,200) to a former employee in compensation after he filed a discrimination complaint over the company's return-to-office policy. Paul Ah-Thion requested to continue working remotely in light of his disability after CIG called workers back to its headquarters. However, the firm refused, and he was eventually fired.