Earlier this year, it was revealed that two former TRON Foundation employees were suing the company, which is behind the TRON digital currency, accusing it of providing a hostile work environment and an inherent nonchalance over following U.S. regulations. There were allegations of physical assault, verbal abuse and more, and the two individuals wanted the courts to get involved. However, that’s not going to happen, at least for now, as an employment contract signed by the workers requires all disputes to first go to arbitration.
Richard Hall and Lukasz Juraszek weren’t happy with the way they saw TRON’s Justin Sun allegedly hit the company’s engineering head, Cong Li, or with how Li subsequently hit another employee. They also weren’t happy with a perception of racial discrimination that saw them become targets for being Caucasian. Adding to their workplace frustrations, attempts to raise the alarm over the presence of copyright material and child pornography on BitTorrent, which Sun acquired in 2018, were dismissed as unimportant.
Ultimately, because they tried to speak up over workplace violations, both Hall and Juraszek were fired. This wrongful termination, as they saw it, led to the filing of the lawsuit, but TRON countered that the existing arbitration agreement voided the suit. The judge who received TRON’s defense, Ethan Schulman, agreed, asserting, “The arbitration provisions incorporated the applicable rules of the American Arbitration Association. [T]he agreements clearly state each party promises to resolve claims by arbitration.”
The employees tried to argue that the arbitration agreement, which was attached to their initial employment agreement, was a form of coercion and, therefore, should not be taken into consideration. They said that they were essentially forced to sign the agreement because not signing it would have led to the company deciding not to hire them.
Whether it be arbitration or court litigation, the case is now at a temporary standstill. The coronavirus is forcing court systems to shut down and, almost everywhere in the U.S., all non-essential business activity has been ordered to come to a halt.
Justin Sun apparently has a penchant for controversy, almost seemingly preferring it over responsible business management. After paying a ridiculous amount of money – over $4.5 million – to have lunch with Warren Buffet last year, he claimed to be ill and had to postpone the meeting at the last minute. However, only a few days later, he was seen partying in San Francisco. He has also become an enemy to supporters of the digital currency he created after calling it a “shitcoin.”
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