Laid Off Twitter Employees Not Getting The Severance They Are Owed?
A group of recently laid-off Twitter employees are filing a class action lawsuit on the grounds that they did not receive proper notice nor severance pay prior to their termination.
This article is more than 2 years old
Since Elon Musk took over Twitter last month, he has been making waves with the various changes he has made to the 44 billion-dollar social media company. This week he has laid off half of Twitter’s employees in an effort to turn around the failing social media site.
The Twitter employees are clearly not happy with this news as up until this week; they didn’t know if they were keeping their jobs or not. They are so unhappy with Elon Musk’s decision that they have filed a lawsuit against Twitter, claiming they violated federal and California laws by not giving the proper notice nor severance when Musk moved to terminate the Twitter employees.
While most laid-off Twitter employees are going ahead with the lawsuit, not every employee is involved in it, according to Ars Technica. Not joining the settlement could affect the money they receive, as it could be lower than the deal Twitter had initially promised them.
Twitter promised their terminated staff that they would receive the same severance pay and benefits they would have received previously under the original owners. But it appears that that will not be the case.
Under the previous owners, Twitter employees were to be given a minimum of two months’ severance, but more than likely, it would be more depending on how long you were employed in the company. The severance package also included bonuses, equity, and other benefits.
But now, the terminated employees have been told that their last day working with Twitter will be on January 4, 2023, and they will receive one month’s severance pay. This change is a breach of their employment contracts, and it seems the Twitter employees will not go down without a fight.
Hundreds of thousands of individual arbitration claims will be filed under the umbrella of this lawsuit. Still, lawyers are worried that Musk will commit the employees to a lower settlement this week before it goes to court. They are directing employees not to sign it until they have considered their own claims.
While Twitter doesn’t want to pay hundreds of millions of dollars, they need to inform their employees of their legal rights before asking them to settle for less than they are worth and could legally be entitled to.
Elon Musk stated that he believes that Twitter is paying their employees more than adequate compensation and that every employee was offered three months’ severance.
Elon Musk is a great businessman with many successful ventures, such as Tesla and SpaceX, and I’m sure he will be able to add Twitter to that portfolio in time. With just acquiring the company, he has made waves in the first few months, especially with the employees. Looking at how he is now treating the terminated Twitter employees, the remaining employees would not be happy.
Some of them were already denied remote working even though it had previously been granted to them. While Musk is probably thinking about the business long-term, in the short-term, he needs to treat his employees better if he was this acquisition to be successful.
