Former employees sue Twitter and Musk for $500 million

Twitter and its owner, Elon Musk, were sued  Wednesday before the US Court by former employees who demand at least $500 million for dismissal compensation that they supposedly corresponded to and did not receive.

Led by Courtney McMillan, a former head of the company’s human resources, the fired employees filed the action in a San Francisco (California) court. The lawsuit alleges that Twitter has laid off approximately 6,000 workers since its acquisition by Musk and that none of them have been paid the compensation they were entitled to under the company’s severance plan.

According to McMillan, that plan established that at least those laid off should receive two months’ salary plus one week for each year worked in the event of being laid off, and some of them were entitled to even higher compensation based on their rank.

However, the lawsuit claims, the former employees received at most one month of severance and many have yet to receive anything, so the signatories accuse Twitter and Musk of violating federal regulations on workers’ compensation.

The company already faces other similar lawsuits for allegedly breaching the contracts of fired employees, while it relies on violation of those US laws.

Although it does not specify the number of victims, the legal action considers that those dismissed are jointly entitled to at least $500 million.

After taking control of Twitter last year, Musk undertook a massive restructuring of the social network, abruptly laying off more than half the staff, and adding new departures in the months that followed.

In total, it is estimated that the company reduced its employees to about 1,300 when previously it had about 7,500.