Twitter sued by employees amid mass job cuts

Twitter’s former employees have filed a class-action lawsuit in San Francisco Federal court against the social media company. Moreover, the former employees stated that Twitter did not give them enough notice under federal and California law. These employees lost their jobs under the latest mass layoffs.

Alleged violation of WARN Act

On Thursday, five current and former employees of Twitter alleged in a notice that the social media giant violated worker protection laws. In addition, the lawsuit stated that Twitter failed to abide by the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act as well as the California WARN Act. According to these acts the companies need to give a 60-day advance notice to the outgoing employees. Initially, it was Bloomberg who reported that some employees have filed lawsuits in wake of mass layoffs at Twitter. Twitter will reportedly lay off 3,700 employees which is nearly 50% of its total headcount.

Outgoing employee did not get a notice

On Tuesday, Twitter fired Emmanuel Cornet who is a software engineer known for his satirical cartoons critiquing Silicon Valley. His complaint alleges that Twitter began its layoffs November 1 and he did not receive any proper written notice. Hence, this is a violation of U.S. and California law. In addition, the lawsuit alleged that California’s Employment Development Department had not received a notice related to the mass layoffs. Furthermore, other plaintiffs include Justine De Caires, Jessica Pan, and Grae Kindel. Twitter terminated them on November 3.

“Plaintiffs here are reasonably concerned that, absent court intervention, Twitter will engage in similar behaviour and seek releases from laid-off employees without informing them of their rights or the pendency of this case.” the filing stated.

Twitter’s memo

On Thursday, Twitter issued a memo to inform staff about the layoffs. Moreover, the memo stated that outgoing employees will receive an email on their personal account if they are part of mass firing. However, a large number of employees posted regarding their termination prior to receiving the emails. These employees lost access their work email accounts and their work laptops.

Twitter has not commented on the matter as of yet.

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