Elon Musk presented with class action lawsuit after mass layoffs at Twitter

Elon Musk and Twitter are facing a class action lawsuit caused by the mass redundancies announced by the company. The lawsuit says that the employees were released without advanced written notice, several media outlets reported on Friday.

The lawsuit has been filed in the US District Court in the Northern District of California, and it states that Twitter is in violation of worker protection laws which include the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act along with the California WARN Act. 

TechCrunch reported that both of these acts require employees to be given 60 days’ notice of their dismissal.

The plaintiffs said they were “terminated on November 3 by being locked out of their accounts.”

“Twitter is also enacting widespread layoffs across its workforce today, on Nov. 4, 2022, it stated, adding that California’s Employment Development Department had not received a notice related to the event,” the lawsuit said.

The plaintiffs have asked the court to acknowledge that Twitter has violated both the federal and California WARN Acts and “certify the case as a class action suit.”

The lawsuit will request “a range of relief, including compensatory damages (including wages owed), as well as declaratory relief, pre- and post-judgment interest, plus other attorneys’ fees and costs.”

As per the terms of the takeover, any employees who are made redundant should receive 60 days of salary and the cash value of the stock.

“Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, has made clear that he believes complying with federal labor laws is ‘trivial.’ We have filed this federal complaint to ensure that Twitter should be held accountable to our laws and to prevent Twitter employees from unknowingly signing away their rights,” Shannon Liss-Riordan, who is part of the legal team in charge of th lawsuit, said in an email sent to TechCrunch.

“Employees should be very careful about signing anything they are offered. We are prepared to file claims on behalf of Twitter employees who get laid off without proper notice or severance. We are also investigating whether Twitter has attempted to avoid its obligations to pay stock options it owes to employees by laying them off now,” she added.

Musk defended the layoffs and the manner in which they took place by saying that the packages offered to employees went over and above what is legally required.

“Regarding Twitter’s reduction in force, unfortunately there is no choice when the company is losing over $4M/day. Everyone exited was offered 3 months of severance, which is 50% more than legally required.”