GitHub on Sunday said it was sorry for firing a Jewish employee who sent a message warning colleagues to “stay safe homies, Nazis are about,” on Jan. 6, the day President Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol building in an attempt to overturn the election.
n a blog post, GitHub’s chief operating officer Erica Brescia said the company had hired an outside investigator to look into the incident and that the investigation had “revealed significant errors of judgment and procedure.” Given the findings, Brescia stated that GitHub had immediately gotten in touch with the employee to offer him his job back. She affirmed that GitHub’s head of human resources had taken personal accountability for the incident and had resigned from the company on Saturday.
“To the employee we wish to say publicly: we sincerely apologise,” Brescia said.
Besides the apology, Brescia also highlighted a series of statements that she and CEO Nat Friedman had shared with employees in response to the incident in recent days. About 200 of GitHub’s nearly 1,700 employees signed an internal letter asking the company’s management for answers regarding the firing of the employee as well as a firmer stance against anti-Semitism and white supremacy, Business Insider reported.
“Employees are free to express concerns about Nazis, antisemitism, white supremacy or any other form of discrimination or harassment in internal discussions. We expect all employees to be respectful, professional, and follow GitHub policies on discrimination and harassment,” the blog stated.
Read the article by Jody Serrano in Gizmodo.