US labor agency finds merit in Kickstarter termination complaint

United States federal agency the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has said that there's merit to accusations that crowdfunding platform Kickstarter fired employee Taylor Moore unlawfully.

As reported by Motherboard, the organisation said there was merit to the charges that Kickstarter fired Moore for his role in trying to get the company's staff to unionise.

Moore along with Clarissa Redwine had their jobs terminated in September 2019. Both were involved in organizing a union at the firm.

At the time, Kickstarter boss Aziz Hasan denied that the decision had anything to do with their involvement with the union movement.

The 1934 National Labor Relations Act says that it is illegal for companies to discriminate against employees organizing unions.

The case is still ongoing, but the NLRB's decision that the case has merit is an important moment in the narrative.

"This should be a signal to workers that you can win, even as weakened and corrupted as the NLRB is by Trump's influence. You can still win. This is still a fight worth having," Moore said.

"Having witnessed it all firsthand, the evidence can't be clearer. I was coming off my best three quarters when I was fired and they never gave me or any one else a sufficient reason for termination."

Kickstarter's comms boss Kate Bernyk responded, "The NLRB has not issued a complaint and there have been no formal findings of any violations of the National Labor Relations Act. If the NLRB does issue a complaint and Mr. Moore's claims are heard by an administrative law judge, we're confident that the NLRB will find our decision to part ways with this employee was for legitimate reasons.

"We hope to be able to resolve this matter soon, and we continue to remain focused on working with our staff's union to negotiate a fair and productive collective bargaining agreement."

Kickstarter became one of the first big US tech companies to unionize in February of this year.