Twitter is being sued by employees fired almost without warning

Threatening to strike directly at CEO Elon Musk’s anticipated savings, a class-action lawsuit filed in a US court is seeking substantial damages on behalf of Twitter employees fired via email.

Awaited with horror by Twitter employees, the email called ‘Your Role at Twitter’ settles in just a few lines the future of employees of the company recently taken over by Elon Musk. Evaluated on less-than-transparent performance criteria, up to half of the company’s employees will learn or have already learned that they have 60 days to find a new source of income, preferably before the mass layoff measure takes effect.

In a big hurry with his plan to streamline the company, Elon Musk appears to have ignored some best practice rules regarding the implementation of staff restructurings, most likely running afoul of US labor protection laws.

According to the charges filed in the case, although the Twitter chief followed the letter of the law by informing his employees 60 days before initiating mass layoffs, the notice measures used were not sufficient. At the same time, according to the lawyer Liss-Riordan, the court action was initiated in an attempt to “ensure that employees are aware that they should not have to give up their rights guaranteed by labour law and that they have a way to exercise those rights”.

The suit was filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco and names five workers as plaintiffs. The lawsuit notes that one of the named plaintiffs had already been terminated at the time of filing, while three others have been locked out of the company’s accounts – an action that allegedly indicates they will be officially terminated soon.

According to information obtained so far from sources close to the company, Musk is targeting firing about half of Twitter’s estimated 7,500 employees, yes as part of an effort to streamline the company by cutting non-essential costs.

A number of Twitter employees have already begun updating their professional resumes, signaling that they have already been affected by the layoffs, with many expressing frustration that they have received no notice of the impending layoffs:

“I logged out of my work Gmail account and relaxed in the evening with my colleagues. No communication or notification,” wrote one employee, whose LinkedIn profile shows he has worked for Twitter for nearly two years.

What is certain is that Elon Musk is not the first experience of this kind, having also been sued by former Tesla employees, claiming the same unfair dismissal practices and violations of US labour laws.