Judge rules ex-employees must turn to arbitration
Elon Musk can breathe easier now that Twitter won’t be facing a class action from recently laid-off workers.
The five former employees of the San Francisco-based social media giant must pursue their claims in private arbitration, U.S. District Judge James Donato has ruled.
The ex-employees have accused the company of failing to give adequate notice before laying them off, which occurred shortly after Musk purchased Twitter in October.
Donato granted Twitter’s request to have the five ex-employees pursue their claims individually, citing agreements they signed with the company, according to the CNN report. However, the judge didn’t yet decide on whether the entire class action lawsuit must be dismissed, “as warranted by developments in the case.”
Donato noted that three other former Twitter employees who alleged they had opted out of the company’s arbitration agreement have joined the lawsuit after it was first filed.
Previously, lawyer Shannon Liss-Riordan, who is representing former Twitter employees, said she has filed around 300 demands for arbitration relating to Twitter layoffs.
Recently, Twitter sent separation agreements to laid-off workers months after the layoffs happened. That agreement states that employees must waive their right to ever sue the company, assist anyone in a legal case against the company unless required by law, or speak negatively about Twitter, its management or Musk.
The separation agreements also offered the former employees one month of severance pay, below the 60 days of severance pay that could be given to the same workers, as noted in a previous report.
Also, the separation agreement does not include year-end bonuses, cash contribution for healthcare continuation, additional severance based on tenure, or the cash value of restricted stock units that are typically vested every quarter, according to an LA Times report citing the words of one former engineering manager.
In November, Musk fired approximately 3,700 employees. Musk also fired as many as 20 Twitter engineers, some of whom posted critical comments. Shortly after the layoffs, Twitter started reaching out to dozens of them and asking them to come back.
Late in October, Musk denied reports that he was going to fire Twitter employees before Nov. 1, when part of their year-end compensation was set to kick in.
