A recent decision by a US judge has deemed the separation agreements Meta provided to employees during the mass layoff season of 2022 illegal.
National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) administrative law judge Andrew Gollin issued the decision last week, highlighting the violation of employee rights under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) in these agreements.
Specifically, the judge found the non-disparagement and confidentiality clauses within the agreements “interfered with, restrained, and coerced its employees in the exercise of their Section 7 rights.”
Meta restricting workers
The judge mandated Meta must remove the problematic language, inform all affected employees about the ruling, and post notices in the workplace outlining employees’ NLRB-given rights.
The lawsuit stems from mass layoffs between August 21, 2022 and February 20, 2023, when 7,511 U.S.-based, non-supervisory employees received a Separation Agreement. Of those, 96%, or 7,236, signed the agreement, including David James Carlson, the complainant in the case.
Meta’s agreement reportedly offered increased severance pay and additional benefits in exchange for employees waiving their rights to discuss their employment or termination publicly.
Should the NLRB uphold Gollin’s decision, significant changes in severance agreements across various industries could be prompted. The tech industry alone saw more than 165,000 layoffs in 2022 (via layoffs.fyi), with a further 263,000 in 2023 and 107,000 this year to date.
Gollin emphasized that Meta’s agreements, although drafted before the McLaren Macomb decision, still violated the newly established standards.
The decision summarizes: “The General Counsel argues McLaren Macomb should be applied retroactively, and that under that standard Respondent violated the Act by offering the separation agreements containing the unlawfully overbroad sections at issue.”
A Meta spokesperson told TechRadar Pro in an email:
"Meta disagrees with the judge's decision and, in particular, the decision to retroactively apply a new legal standard. Meta does not have a crystal ball allowing it to foresee when or how the National Labor Relations Board will decide to change the law, and as the judge specifically found in his decision, Meta did not violate the law in effect at the time the company offered the separation agreements. We intend to appeal."
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