A second complaint this month filed against Twitter Inc., asserting that the social media company owes at least $500 million in severance pay to former employees. This is the second complaint of its kind this month. This is just the most recent in a slew of lawsuits following Elon Musk’s takeover of the business.
Twitter Again Sued Over Severance Pay: Chris Woodfield, a former senior engineer at Twitter, filed a proposed class action lawsuit in federal court in Delaware with the additional claim—not stated in the other ongoing lawsuits—that the business intentionally targeted older employees for layoffs.
Allegedly, Twitter assured Woodfield and other employees on numerous occasions that they would receive two months’ worth of pay and other payments if they were let off, while working for the company out of Seattle. However, they have not received the money.
After Musk bought Twitter last October, the company cut more than half of its personnel as a cost-saving strategy.
Twitter no longer has a public relations division, and the company’s automated response to a request for comment included a faeces emoji. In response to previous lawsuits, the business has stated that laid-off employees have received their entire wages.
Last week, someone filed a similar complaint in federal court in California, asserting that Twitter owes ex-employees more than $500 million in compensation.
Lawsuit Alleges Fraud and Contract Breach: Twitter Faces Legal Challenges from Former Employees
Twitter hasn’t reacted to the case, which asserts that by disobeying the terms of a severance agreement made before Musk bought the business, Twitter broke the rules governing employee benefit schemes.
The corporation is charged with fraud and contract breach in Woodfield’s case. Woodfield contends that Twitter singled him out for termination because he is a “older worker,” even though his age is not specified in the complaint.
The lawsuit claims that Woodfield agreed to arbitrate employment-related legal disputes and that Twitter must cover the initial costs in order for individual cases to move forward. He claims that early this year, he filed an arbitration claim against Twitter.
Woodfield, however, asserts that Twitter has refused to pay the cost in his case, preventing it from proceeding. In a different instance earlier this year, hundreds of former employees asserted that claim. According to Twitter, those employees failed to provide the required documentation.
Additionally, numerous different lawsuits charge Twitter with failing to provide early notice of layoffs, disproportionately terminating women and people with disabilities, and neglecting to pay promised incentives to its surviving employees. The business has refuted those allegations.