Condé Nast Settles With Former Staffers for $400,000

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Last year, four Condé Nast staffers — Bon Appétit’s Alma Avalle, Condé Nast Entertainment’s Ben Dewey, The New Yorker’s Jasper Lo, and Wired’s Jake Lahut — were fired after they confronted chief people officer Stan Duncan outside his office about layoffs and the consolidation of Teen Vogue.

The NewsGuild of New York then filed grievances and Unfair Labor Practice charges at the National Labor Relations Board in support of the four workers and five other employees who were suspended following the confrontation.

“We fought because we had to,” said Lo, a former senior fact checker at The New Yorker, in a statement to WWD, “because so much of an equitable future as workers and journalists depends on our combined efforts to resist inhumane treatment.”

As of yesterday, three of the four dismissed staffers have reached a settlement with Condé Nast: Lo, Dewey, and Avalle will split $400,000 and their firings have been converted to resignations. According to the union, their disciplinary records were also expunged.

In a memo that circulated Wednesday, Condé Nast stood firm in it’s position on the matter calling the confrontation with Duncan “a violation of our company policies and collective bargaining agreement.”

As part of the agreement, both parties — Condé Nast and the three employees they settled with — “expressly denied wrongdoing and liability,” said the memo.

They also warned that similar confrontations by staff would not be tolerated, saying that “For the employees who were suspended, we have removed their suspensions, but they are on notice that similar activities in the future may lead to disciplinary action.” They then closed out the memo by saying, “Importantly, throughout this process, we upheld our Condé Code to respect each other, and we have made clear that we will uphold our company policies, and we do not tolerate harassment or misconduct in our workplace.”

Lahut, a former political writer at Wired, was not included in the settlement deal. In a post on X, he said, “I’m so stoked for the rest of the Fired Four getting this deal. Condé is giving them nearly two years of backpay. They offered me 4 months. In the absence of a serious offer, I’m looking forward to my day in court.”