Shortly after taking over Twitter, Elon Musk laid off round 50 p.c of the corporate’s workers. On the identical day, he tweeted that each one these laid off would obtain three months of severance pay. However, after two months of ready for the corporate to say what sort of severance and advantages might be accessible, a number of former Twitter workers say they’ve heard nothing.
As weeks of ready flip into months, former staffers within the US are submitting arbitration fits, whereas some within the UK are attempting to barter phrases. In different international locations the place Twitter laid off workers, folks have heard nothing.
Quickly after the layoffs had been introduced, Twitter was pressured to backtrack and preserve some workers on payroll for longer. California workers had been employed, although not working, till January 4 to keep away from working afoul of the state’s Employee Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, or WARN. In New York, former staffers might be employed for an additional month in accordance with state legal guidelines. However as these deadlines move, Twitter’s silence has grow to be deafening.
Seven former Twitter workers who spoke to WIRED stated that they had not acquired details about their severance, regardless of some coming as much as or being previous their final day on the firm. Final month, a handful of former workers announced that they might be submitting arbitration circumstances towards the corporate, alleging that it had violated the WARN Act and that its dealing with of the layoffs constituted a breach of contract.
One former worker, who was laid off in November, is ready on authorized proceedings to see whether or not they’ll be given severance in any respect—and isn’t assured they are going to be. One other, who was laid off in early November, has heard nothing from the corporate.
A 3rd has but to obtain any particulars of severance, despite the fact that they’ve been chasing Twitter for info since they had been fired in November. They’d been promised at the least twice earlier than that they might be given particulars of their package deal—and every time the promised deadline handed with none info.
An ex-staffer within the UK says that they’ve additionally not acquired phrase about severance however are presently discussing phrases with the corporate on behalf of the some 300 workers based mostly within the nation.
A former worker from Twitter’s Accra, Ghana, workplace, which was open for lower than every week earlier than its whole workers was laid off, says that they, “like different workers globally, had been assured severance however haven’t heard from them but.” The previous worker says they weren’t certain what, if any, recourse they might have towards the corporate in Ghana.
Twitter is, nevertheless, offering severance to some. One former contractor says their boss acquired their severance particulars on January 5. As for the contractor, they got a field of candies by the company that obtained them the job at Twitter. All former Twitter staffers contacted for this story had been granted anonymity as a result of speaking to the media may have an effect on them being granted severance pay.
Whereas some selected to attend till their official standing as workers expired on January 4, others selected to take preemptive authorized motion towards the corporate.
