A lawsuit was filed against Twitter on Tuesday, alleging that the social media giant illegally terminated contract workers without prior notice following its acquisition by Elon Musk last year. This legal action is the latest consequence of the company's substantial job layoffs.
The proposed class action, filed in federal court in San Francisco, says Twitter fired several employees of staffing firm TEKsystems in November without providing the requisite 60 days’ notice under US and California law.
Five additional claims are pending in the same court, alleging that Twitter violated the regulations by targeting female employees for layoffs and discriminating against employees with impairments. However, Twitter has refuted all the allegations.
In early November, Musk, who paid $44 billion (approximately Rs. 3,37,465 crore) to acquire the social networking site, fired off roughly 3,700 employees, or half of the workforce. Hundreds more staff resigned as a result.
Twitter and TEKsystems, a Maryland-based company named as a defendant in the complaint, did not respond to allegations.
Shannon Liss-Riordan, who is the plaintiff's attorney in all of the claims, stated in an email that “company’s CEO seems to believe he is saving the company’s money by avoiding these obligations, but we want to show him that not meeting his responsibilities may be very costly.”
Shannon added that she has instituted private arbitration proceedings on behalf of more than 1,700 former contractors and employees of Twitter who had agreed to have legal disputes arbitrated. She claimed that none of the TEKsystems employees had signed arbitration agreements.
She also assists employees who have filed grievances against Twitter with the US Labor Department. These employees claim they were fired because they spoke negatively about the company, attempted to organise a strike, or engaged in other activities protected under federal labour law.
Recently, Twitter’s distinctive bird logo has lately been replaced by the Doge meme. Elon Musk made the announcement official through Twitter. He shared a snapshot of a chat he had with a Twitter user who advised him to “simply purchase Twitter” and “change the bird logo to a doge”.
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