Elon Musk’s Twitter Accused of Illegal Staff Firings in UK | CNN Business

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A law firm representing dozens of former UK Twitter employees is accusing the company of “unlawful, unfair and completely unacceptable treatment” of workers following the recent mass layoffs, which the company called a “process of mock dismissal”.

In a letter sent to the company on Monday, law firm Winckworth Sherwood alleged that Twitter breached UK law by cutting off access to internal systems from employees who were made redundant without taking part in the notice period and inquiry required. The letter also said that Twitter has not provided information about the selection criteria used to determine the layoffs.

The letter says 43 affected UK employees are prepared to take the matter to an Employment Tribunal, a UK system for employees to bring legal disputes against their employers, if the company does not agree to co-operate with negotiations over the redundancy process.

The notice marks the latest challenge to Twitter by former employees affected by mass layoffs that followed Elon Musk’s acquisition of the company in October. Twitter laid off half of its global staff at the beginning of November, and has continued to lay off and fire additional employees in the months that followed, including through an ultimatum to work “hardcore.”

More than 300 former US employees have filed arbitration claims against the company, according to lawyers representing them. Twitter also faces four proposed class action lawsuits in the United States related to the layoffs. Now, the backlash to the layoffs may increase in the UK.

“Our clients have been appalled by the direction taken by their employer, whose mission they have genuinely believed in and, in some cases, whose growth and transformation they have supported for many years,” Winckworth Sherwood lawyers wrote on demand. “They remain determined to protect their positions, professional reputation and legal claims against the company should it now proceed to unlawfully and unfairly dismiss them.”

Twitter, which cut much of its PR team as part of the layoffs, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the letter.

British trade union Prospect, which represents more than 100 UK Twitter employees, also wrote to the company this week expressing concerns about its redundancy process, including claims that Twitter “chose not to comply” with his promise that employees laid off after Musk’s takeover will receive compensation with terms no less favorable than those prior to his taking possession.

Prospect also said the company has given workers “an arbitrary date to sign away their rights” in order to receive better severance terms, even though layoff negotiations are ongoing. (Typically, negotiations over mass redundancies in UK companies involve discussions about the reasons for the terminations and how to minimize their size and impact.)

“It should be celebrated that in the UK it is not possible to simply fire employees en masse at will as Twitter has done in other countries,” Prospect. said in the letter “Rest assured, Prospect will continue to lobby the government and raise public awareness about employers who treat their workers as commodities to be discarded on a whim.”

In the United States, there have also been concerns among Twitter employees after they began receiving their severance packages last weekend. The offers promise one month’s pay in exchange for agreeing to various terms, including a non-disparagement agreement and giving up the right to take any legal action against the company, according to Lisa Bloom, an attorney representing dozens of former employees of Twitter affected by the layoffs. .

Many were unhappy with the offer, according to public officials and lawyers representing former employees, who raised concerns about the terms and said they fell short of what the company had previously promised to offer affected employees.

The amount is also significantly less than that provided to rivals such as Facebook parent Meta, which laid off thousands of workers at the same time and guaranteed them 16 weeks of base pay plus an additional two weeks for each year they worked for the company.