A judge says workers attempting to fight Twitter over termination cannot follow through with their group lawsuit.
Key Details
- U.S. District Judge James Donato says the five ex-workers trying to sue the company cannot file as a group and must file claims in individual arbitration.
- The former employees are suing Twitter for not giving sufficient notice before firing them after Elon Musk took over the company.
- Twitter says the ex-employees signed agreements when joining the company and requested that they must pursue individual arbitrations, which the judge agreed to.
Why it’s news
Elon Musk has made many changes to Twitter since he acquired the platform on October 27, including firing multiple employees from the company.
After acquiring Twitter, he cut 50% of Twitter’s workforce almost immediately and let go of everyone on the Twitter board, along with many top executives.
He later gave workers an ultimatum to either work hard or leave; to his surprise, nearly 1,000 workers decided to cut ties with the company.
After his plans of firing around 3,700 employees was announced to the company Twitter was hit with a class-action lawsuit. The ex-workers filed the lawsuit saying Musk did not give them adequate time before firing them, which violates federal and California law.
Twitter says the ex-employees signed agreements when joining the company and were given a severance package. The company requested that the employees must pursue individual arbitrations, which was agreed to by U.S. District Judge James Donato.
Judge Donato agrees with Twitter that the filers should not be able to file in a group suit since they signed an agreement with the company.
The lawyer representing the former employees said that she has filed 300 claims for arbitration for former Twitter employees, and she expects to file hundreds more, according to Reuters.
The workers filing say that they never received the full promised severance package, and some are arguing sex and gender discrimination.
