Former employees of Twitter have sued owner Elon Musk and the company over alleged non-payment of promised severance packages. The lawsuit was filed on July 12th in the U.S. District for the Northern District of California on behalf of employees terminated after Musk’s takeover last October.
While seeking $500 million in damages, the lawsuit is also seeking orders compelling defendants to “abide all terms of the severance package.” Lead plaintiff and former employee of Twitter’s HR department, Courtney McMillian, is being represented by law firm Sanford Heisler Sharp. McMillian was employed with Twitter from August 2020 to early January this year.
Sanford Heisler Sharp lists X Corp. (Twitter parent company) and Musk as defendants in this case, as specified in this copy of the lawsuit. Since Musk took over the social media platform, Twitter has been at the center of multiple lawsuits connected with the mass layoffs.
At this time neither the legal team for Twitter, law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, or Musk have made comment about the recent lawsuit.
Prior to Musk’s takeover, Twitter offered a severance plan that met the requirements of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA). Before Musk assumed control of Twitter, he and Twitter executives assured employees that the severance plan would still be in effect and paid out in accordance to anyone let go. However the lawsuit alleges the severance packages have not been paid to thousands of terminated employees.
And as of today, Twitter asked a federal court to terminate a Federal Trade Commission order that puts restrictions on its data security practices, accusing the agency of conducting a “burdensome and vexatious” probe that intensified after Elon Musk bought the company.
At this point we have to seriously ask, is anyone surprised Twitter and Musk are involved in yet another lawsuit? It seems like ever since the takeover, we are hearing about people suing the company about being laid off, or about how the platform has gone downhill.
