Judge ‘wakes up’ Twitter employees filing class-action lawsuit against Elon Musk A reality check Elon Musk has won against disgruntled ex-Twitter employees.
Who filed a class-action lawsuit against her for terminating her without more generous severance pay. US District Judge James Donato ruled in favor of Twitter on Friday.
In its order, it said the former employees had signed arbitration agreements with Twitter as part of their employment contracts. The signed agreements indicated that employees would bring legal disputes to arbitration rather than court and included a class-action waiver.
STATED IN THE AGREEMENT, YOU AND THE COMPANY AGREE TO BRING ANY DISPUTE TO ARBITRATION ONLY ON AN INDIVIDUAL BASIS, AND NOT ON THE BASIS OF A CLASS, CLASS, OR PRIVATE ATTORNEY GENERAL REPRESENTATIVE ACTION. The dispute-resolution agreement also states that “arbitration is not a mandatory condition of the employee’s employment with the company.” Workers were offered a separate form if they chose to opt out.
Twitter has provided signed copies of the agreements, and they are all clear and legible, Donato wrote in the order. The five initial plaintiffs who filed their complaint were “ordered to proceed to arbitration on an individual basis.” Donato said the three employees who walked out and sued Musk were unaffected by the decision.
Shannon Liss-Riordan, the attorney representing the fired Twitter employees, told Insider that she anticipated the decision. Our lawsuits already have plaintiffs who have opted out of arbitration, so those cases will continue in court as class actions, but only employees who opt out of arbitration can be members of the class involved in the cases. Yes, she said.
Elon Musk has purged the company of thousands of employees since his acquisition of Twitter. He suggested at one point that these former employees would receive three months’ severance pay, whereas the lawsuit claims they were owed at least two months’ severance pay. Instead, many employees were given one month’s severance pay.
Prior to their dismissal, Woke Twitter employees filed a hilarious list of demands to Elon Musk and the board of directors. Employees, Elon Musk and the Board of Directors: We, the undersigned Twitter workers, recognize that public interactions are at risk. Elon Musk’s plan to lay off 75% of Twitter’s employees will hurt Twitter’s ability to have a public conversation.
A threat of this magnitude is reckless, undermines the trust of our users and customers in our platform, and is a transparent act of activist intimidation. Twitter has a significant impact on societies and communities around the world. As we speak, Twitter is helping to spur the rise of independent journalism in Ukraine and Iran, as well as powering social movements around the world.
A threat to employees at Twitter is a threat to Twitter’s future. These threats have an impact on us as workers and demonstrate a fundamental disconnect with the realities of operating Twitter. They threaten our livelihoods, access to essential healthcare and the ability of visa holders to live in the countries in which they work. We cannot do our work in an environment of constant harassment and threats.
We, the workers of Twitter, will not be intimidated. We’re committed to supporting the communities, organizations and businesses that rely on Twitter. We will not stop presenting Public Conversations. We call on Twitter management and Elon Musk to stop these reckless layoff threats. As workers, we deserve solid commitments so that we can maintain the integrity of our platform.
We ask the leadership to respect the committed employees to preserve the platform and existing workforce. We demand that leadership does not discriminate against workers on the basis of race, gender, disability, sexual orientation, or political beliefs. We also call for protections for workers on visas who would be forced to leave the country where they work if fired.
We demand that Elon Musk expressly commit to preserving our benefits, both listed in the merger agreement and not (such as remote working). We call on leadership to establish and ensure proper severance policies for all workers before and after any change in ownership.
We demand transparent, prompt and considerate communication about our working conditions. We demand to be treated with dignity, not just as pawns in a game played by billionaires.