Twitter hit by legal complaints from 100 former employees after Musk firings | CNN Business

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Twitter has received allegations from 100 former employees affected by mass layoffs at the company, including that it unfairly fired more women than men, fired employees who were actively on medical or parental leave, and reneged on promises related to severance pay. dismissal

The allegations were included as part of the former employees’ arbitration claims against the company, according to a statement Tuesday from attorney Shannon Liss-Riordan.

Liss-Riordan is the same attorney who has filed four proposed class action lawsuits against Twitter by former employees affected by the Elon Musk acquisition. Arbitration claims are intended to help workers who cannot participate in such litigation because of the contracts they have signed with the company.

The claims in the arbitration claims mirror those in the lawsuits. Some also claim that Musk made “unreasonable demands” on Twitter’s workforce in an effort to reduce its staff, according to the statement.

“Twitter’s conduct since Musk took over is incredibly egregious, and we will pursue every avenue to protect workers and extract from Twitter the compensation they are owed,” Liss-Riordan said in the statement. He added that his firm has heard from hundreds of former Twitter employees and has filed only the “first wave” of arbitration claims.

“We are ready to fight them one by one, on behalf of potentially thousands of employees if that is necessary,” he said.

Liss-Riordan previously filed three proposed class actions on behalf of female employees, disabled employees and contractors who were fired. A group of former employees filed another lawsuit that accuses Twitter of breach of contract because it allegedly failed to follow through on promises to allow remote work and provide consistent compensation after the acquisition.

Twitter, which recently laid off much of its communications department, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the arbitration claims. Twitter has denied allegations of breach of contract in the lawsuit filed by former employees over remote work and compensation, and has not responded to claims in the other three lawsuits.

Liss-Riordan has also filed three complaints against Twitter with the National Labor Relations Board on behalf of employees affected by the layoffs.

The growing claims from former employees come after Twitter laid off about half its staff in a mass layoff last month shortly after Musk’s acquisition. Musk later fired hundreds of additional employees, even demanding that they accept an ultimatum to work “extremely hardcore” or leave the company.

Former employees who sued Twitter scored an early victory last week when a judge ruled in favor of their motion to order the company to alert all fired employees of the pending lawsuits before requiring them to sign severance agreements waiving their rights to litigation.