Former Twitter employees are suing the social media giant, claiming that the company has violated and planned to violate federal and state laws governing mass layoffs.
The lawsuit comes when much of Twitter’s employee base received layoff notices in the wake of Elon Musk’s acquisition of the $ 44 billion company. The company said Thursday that all employees would be notified of their employment status by 9:00 am on Friday. Musk reportedly plans to lay off about 50 percent of the company’s 7,500-strong workforce.
Musk has already fired Twitter’s leadership team, including current CEO Parag Agrawal.
The lawsuit, asking for class action status, was filed Thursday in the United States District Court in the Northern District of California.
Plaintiff Emmanuel Cornet was fired from Twitter on Tuesday “effective immediately” without receiving 60 days’ notice, as required by federal and state law on the adjustment and retraining of workers in the event of mass layoffs, according to the lawsuit. He also did not receive severance pay, the lawsuit claimed.
Two days later, plaintiffs Justine De Caires, Jessica Pan and Grae Kindel were locked out of their company accounts, “which they understood to signal that they would be fired,” according to the lawsuit. They too did not receive notice and were not formally notified of a dismissal, the lawsuit said.
The California Department of Employment Development said Twitter hasn’t filed any WARN notice reporting a mass layoff this year.
Twitter did not respond to a request for comment.
Plaintiffs are attempting to prevent Twitter from violating the federal and state WARN Act and from seeking the release of claims under those laws from dismissed employees without informing employees of the pending lawsuit and their rights under those statutes. The plaintiffs are also seeking compensation for damages, including all expenses and salaries due.
Plaintiffs’ attorney, Shannon Liss-Riordan, did not respond to a request for comment from the Times. On Friday, she told Bloomberg that Musk is “making an effort to comply” with the law and that she was “happy” to learn that at least some employees will continue to get paid until January 4.
