Tech Firm Illegally Axed Director-Turned-Worker, NLRB Judge Says

A multibillion-dollar Silicon Valley tech firm illegally fired an accomplished and highly paid software engineer based on his advocacy on behalf of his coworkers, a National Labor Relations Board judge ruled.

Snowflake Inc. failed to respect Scott Bessler’s legal right to speak out for improved working conditions that he gained when the cloud computing giant demoted him from a supervisory role, Administrative Law Judge Brian Gee said in his decision Friday.

Instead, Snowflake “erred by continuing to view Bessler as a supervisor who was being ‘inappropriate” and ‘disruptive,’ and who could lawfully be discharged on that basis,” Gee said.

The ...