The Musk management led Twitter Inc. to face new legal ramifications after many workers complained about receiving fewer severance packages than promised. Other employees complained about the company retaliating after exercising labor protection rights.
The latest round of legal action follows after the class action lawsuit filed by employees in early November. This was when the first round of layoffs began, and the workers accused the company of not giving enough notice period to hundreds of employees who were facing termination.
A lawyer based in Los Angeles said she filed arbitration lawsuits on behalf of three employees who claimed that the company did not pay them the severance amount promised before Musk took over.
Fresh Arbitrations Against Musk Led Management
Lisa Bloom, who filed the case for the three employees, said she was preparing to file hundred such complaints on behalf of other employees and contractors of Twitter. Arbitration proceedings are held under closed doors, unlike other lawsuits, which are publicly conducted.
Two more complaints were filed with the National Labor Relations Board against Twitter inc. In one case, the company is accused of terminating a worker in retaliation. The work had unsuccessfully sought to organize other workers to force a strike.
The worker’s strike was scheduled for November 17 but did not take place. The complaint on December 1 said that workers were deterred after being sent a mail by Musk asking them to be hardcore if they wanted to retain their jobs.
One employee complained to the labor board about being forced to take administrative leave. The company retaliated after it found the employee participating in the lawsuit and advising other workers to protest against the return to office policy.
Attorney Shannon Liss-Riordan filed both complaints with the labor board. Liss-Riordan also filed another case with the board last month, leading the class action lawsuit in court against Twitter. A hearing for the said case is coming up Thursday in a San Francisco federal court.
Lisa Bloom and three employees announced in a press conference streamed live on Twitter about the arbitration complaints. They said they were promised in October and earlier in May that their severance pay would remain intact after Musk acquired the company.
They also said Twitter pledged to maintain stability at the workplace while Musk’s on and off-deal negotiations of taking over the social media company were causing turbulence.
Clarity on Severance Pay
According to Bloom, the terminated employees are being paid salary till January 4, 2023. But there was no clarity from the company whether the former employees would be paid till January 4 if they got jobs before January or if the salary was considered part of the severance package.
Bloom said that employees who were terminated during parental or pregnancy leave by Musk a possible civil rights law violation. She was trying to enforce the severance agreement that offered employees stock vesting and prorated bonuses beyond three months from their last working day at Twitter. She also said that many employees were duped into signing waivers that stopped them from approaching courts.
