Twitter is being sued by the employees over Elon Musk’s plan to cut 3,700 jobs, which is about half of the workforce, reports Bloomberg.
They filed a class-action suit on Thursday in San Francisco federal court, claiming that the company’s decision to retrench the staff is in violation of federal and California law.
The petition has cited the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act which prohibits large companies from eliminating jobs without at least 60 days of advance notice.
In their lawsuit, they have urged the court to issue an order asking Musk to obey the WARN Act and restrict the company from forcing employees to sign documents that could give up their right to participate in litigation.
“We filed this lawsuit tonight in an attempt the make sure that employees are aware that they should not sign away their rights and that they have an avenue for pursuing their rights,” Shannon Liss-Riordan, the attorney who filed Thursday’s complaint, said in an interview to Bloomberg.
Watch | Report: Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk plans to cut 3,700 jobs
Earlier, the company had shared in a memo to employees that it is going to lay off around 3,700 people and they will be informed via mail. The social media company also asked the employees not to visit the office as they are temporarily closing down. The mail said that it will alert the staff by 9 am (pacific time) on Friday (1600 GMT) about the job cuts.
Also read | Twitter set to begin mass layoffs, staff to know employment status via email: Report
“In an effort to place Twitter on a healthy path, we will go through the difficult process of reducing our global workforce on Friday,” the mail seen by Reuters news agency stated.
The mail also said that they want to inform the “impacted individuals as quickly as possible” therefore the news will be communicated via email. It added, “If your employment is not impacted, you will receive a notification via your Twitter email.” On the other hand, if it has “impacted” their employment they would be notified regarding their next steps via their personal email.
Also read | Image shows Twitter employee sleeping on office floor after Musk takeover
The microblogging site said that its offices have been closed temporarily and all badge access will be suspended “to help ensure the safety of each employee as well as Twitter systems and customer data.”
(With inputs from agencies)
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