Two ex-Twitter employees have filed a class-action lawsuit against the company, accusing the firm of gender discrimination.
The lawsuit was filed in San Francisco Federal Court, claiming that Musk’s new policies had a “disproportionate impact” on women.
According to data analyzed in the lawsuit, Twitter laid off 57 per cent of its female employees and only 4 7 per cent of its male employees. Within that, 63 per cent of women in engineering roles were laid off compared to only 48 per cent of men in similar roles, according to the lawsuit’s data analysis.
This is one among several lawsuits former employees have filed against Twitter since Elon Musk took ownership on October 27, and eliminated more than half the company’s workforce.
Other class-action suits address Twitter’s violations of the California WARN Act, which requires employers to provide significant advance notice to employees before conducting mass layoffs. Former employees argue that Twitter provided them with less than the required 60-day notice and docked months of severance pay.
Another suit argues that Twitter discriminated against disabled workers by requiring them to come into the office without providing reasonable accommodation – a mandate by the California Fair Employment and Housing Act.
Shannon Liss-Riordan, a labour attorney representing some of Twitter’s employees, held a press conference in San Francisco on Thursday ahead of the court hearing for a class-action suit filed by five former employees who alleged that Twitter did not provide adequate notice before its mass layoffs.
The hearing specifically focused on an emergency motion requiring Twitter to inform all employees of their rights before distributing severance agreements. Liss-Riordan noted that she had also filed a similar suit against Tesla over its layoffs in June 2022.
Four plaintiffs from the lawsuits being represented by Liss-Riordan also spoke at the conference. Many of them expressed their support for former colleagues with families or those who couldn’t risk appearing at the conference.
Dmitry Borodaenko, a former engineering manager at Twitter, is the lead plaintiff in the case against Twitter’s discrimination against employees with disabilities. He said that as a former cancer survivor, contracting a virus like COVID-19 was a “life or death situation.” He needed to work from home in order to avoid health-related risks, but Musk’s new policies made that almost impossible.
Emmanuel “Manu” Cornet, a former engineer known for his satirical cartoons, told Insider after the press conference that “the only thing I really want from this is to send support signals towards people who may be in similar situations.”
The most prevailing sentiment among the speakers was disapproval of Musk himself. Many pointed out that Musk appeared to believe there were no legal ramifications for how he treated workers.
“You get these multi-billionaires who think they’re above the law. Elon Musk is the richest man in the world,” Liss-Riordan said towards the end of the conference. “It’s really important that the laws in our country are enforced so that multimillionaires and other companies recognize they have an obligation to workers.”
Twitter didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment by Insider.
