The plaintiffs asked the court to declare that Twitter has violated the federal and California WARN Acts and “certify the case as a class action suit”…reports Asian Lite News
lon Musk-run Twitter has been sued in the US for mass lay offs without giving employees advanced written notice, the media reported on Friday.
The lawsuit has been filed in the US District Court in the Northern District of California, in violation of worker protection laws including the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act as well as the California WARN Act, both of which require 60 days of advance notice, reports TechCrunch.
The plaintiffs said they were “terminated on November 3 by being locked out of their accounts”.
“Twitter is also enacting widespread layoffs across its workforce today, on Nov. 4, 2022, it stated, adding that California’s Employment Development Department had not received a notice related to the event,” they said.
The plaintiffs asked the court to declare that Twitter has violated the federal and California WARN Acts and “certify the case as a class action suit”.
The lawsuit is seeking “a range of relief, including compensatory damages (including wages owed), as well as declaratory relief, pre- and post-judgment interest, plus other attorneys’ fees and costs”.
Under Twitter’s takeover deal terms, the laid-off employees should receive 60 days of salary and the cash value of the stock.
Musk has previously laid off employees without any proper notice at Tesla, and is facing a class-action lawsuit.
Musk admits ‘revenue drop’
Elon Musk on Friday said that Twitter has seen a massive drop in revenue as activist groups are putting undue pressure on its advertisers.
In a tweet, the new Twitter CEO who is firing at least half of its workforce globally, including in India, said these activist groups are destroying free speech.
“Twitter has had a massive drop in revenue, due to activist groups pressuring advertisers, even though nothing has changed with content moderation and we did everything we could to appease the activists,” Musk said in a tweet.
“Extremely messed up! They’re trying to destroy free speech in America,” he added.
The company lost $270 million in the April-June period after revenue slipped 1 per cent to $1.18 billion, reflecting advertising industry headwinds.
The number of daily active users rose 16.6 per cent to 237.8 million compared with the same period a year before.
Advertising revenue was $1.08 billion while subscription and other revenue totalled $101 million, a decrease of 27 per cent year-over-year,
In 2021, the company made a revenue of $5.07 billion.
Meanwhile, Twitter notified employees that it will be “reducing its global workforce” on Friday, as its new CEO aims to cut roughly half of its 7,600-strong workforce.
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