A group of laid-off Twitter workers has to drop their class action lawsuit against their former employer.
US district judge James Donato allowed Twitter’s request that five ex-Twitter employees suing the company over wrongful termination go through private arbitration on Friday (Jan. 13). According to agreements they signed with the company, they’ll have to resolve disputes behind closed doors with private judges.
The judge hasn’t dismissed the entire class action lawsuit, though. He noted that three other former Twitter employees who said they had opted out of the company’s arbitration agreement have joined the lawsuit after it was first filed.
Donato is the same judge who had said last year that Twitter must give employees “a succinct and plainly worded notice” before asking workers to sign severance agreements giving up their right to sue.
Twitter’s botched layoffs
Elon Musk began laying off employees soon after he completed the company’s $44 billion takeover and set foot in Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters at the end of October. Musk’s plan to dismiss almost half of the global staff—over 3,700 workers—was executed haphazardly.
Shortly after, the lawsuit started rolling in, accusing the company of violations including targeting women and people with disabilities, and failing to pay promised severance.
While the details of the unfair treatment are contested in court, there’s enough evidence that Twitter’s separation agreement gave employees a raw deal in a number of ways:
⌛ For two months, several employees were in limbo without a severance package;
🤐 They were given one month of severance pay—not 3 months, like Musk had floated—and it was contingent waiving the right to ever sue the company, to help anyone in a dispute against Twitter unless required by law, or to speak negatively about Twitter, its management, or it’s owner;
📝 The contract omitted all mentions of prorated year-end bonuses, cash contribution for healthcare continuation, additional severance based on tenure, or the cash value of restricted stock units that are typically vested every quarter—all part of Twitter’s general severance package prior to Musk’s acquisition;
🧐 For many, the agreements came from an unknown sender and ended up in the spam account, creating confusion.
One big number: Private arbitrations flood Twitter
500: Arbitration claims filed by Shannon Liss-Riordan, a labor lawyer representing plaintiffs in three pending class-action lawsuits against the company, including the five who’ve been instructed to pursue private arbitration. She “anticipated” this move and expects to file hundreds more.
Quotable: Behind Twitter’s push for private arbitration
“Companies like Twitter hide behind arbitration agreements in the hope that employees will choose to quietly walk away rather than protect their rights through arbitration. Our firm has beaten these corps at their own game before, and we look forward to doing it again here.” —Labor lawyer Shannon Liss-Riordan in a tweet on Jan. 8