Twitter Hit With Another Round of Lawsuits for 2022 Mass Layoffs

Twitter Inc. failed to immediately pay some fired workers the full amounts the company owed them after it began mass layoffs without proper notice in 2022 and discriminated against others, new suits allege.

The social media platform provided the notice required under federal and state Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification acts to some workers after Elon Musk’s $44 billion takeover last year, but not all, and it didn’t timely provide the latter with their full pay, a worker told the US District Court for the Northern District of California Thursday.

The “mass termination” of employee’s since Musk’s takeover has impacted employees 50 years old or older more than younger employees, according to another complaint filed Thursday in the same court. The plaintiffs say such discriminatory firing is confirmed by data and Musk’s recent public remarks about older people, pointing to an interview where he allegedly said, “I don’t think we should try to have people live for a really long time. That it would cause asphyxiation of society.”

The lawsuits come days after contract workers hired and paid through a third-party company filed a similar WARN Act suit. Twitter already faced another suit—sent to arbitration in January—alleging WARN Act violations, but this one adds claims for violations of California’s Private Attorneys General Act and state employment laws dealing with the timing of final paychecks. Twitter has also faced allegations of sex discrimination and disability bias following the mass layoffs.

Auto-response messages from Twitter’s press contact email sent a poop emoji when asked for comment on the two suits.

One suit alleges Twitter failed to timely pay some workers their full final pay, benefits, and expense reimbursements. The worker in that case seeks to represent other former employees throughout the US who didn’t receive the 60-day notice required under the federal WARN Act and a class of former workers in California who didn’t receive notice under the state’s version of the law or receive their final payments on time.

Data obtained through the Older Workers Benefit Protection Act shows 60% of employees age 50 or over were laid off in November 2022, while 54% of employees under the age of 50 were laid off, the discrimination complaint says. Further, 73% of employees age 60 or older were laid off at the same time, while only 54% of employees under the age of 60 were laid off.

“The odds that this disparity between employees age sixty (60) or over and under age sixty ( 60) being laid off is due only to chance is .0313. This level of disparity is considered significant under federal discrimination law,” plaintiffs said.

Lichten & Liss-Riordan PC represents the workers in both suits.

The cases are Adler v. Twitter Inc., N.D. Cal., No. 3:23-cv-01788, complaint filed 4/13/23 and Zeman v. Twitter Inc., N.D. Cal., No. 3:23-cv-01786, complaint filed 4/13/23.