By Oyintari Ben
According to a class-action lawsuit filed in a federal court in San Francisco, Twitter was sued over Elon Musk’s proposal to fire almost half of its staff.
Employees of Twitter claimed the firm was firing people without giving them adequate notice, in violation of the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, which mandates that covered employers provide impacted workers advance notice of plant closings and mass layoffs.
Attorney Shannon Liss-Riordan sought a court order directing Twitter to abide by the WARN Act and barring the company from requesting staff to sign any formal documents that would signify their agreement to waive their ability to engage in legal proceedings.
As they were unable to access their laptops, emails, and internal Slack channels, several Twitter staff members turned to the microblogging network.
One of the numerous people who lost access in a virtual confirmation that they were fired was Morgan Bell, a member of the product management team at Twitter.
“I’ve just lost access to my Slack and Twitter emails. It all seems so surreal. #LoveWhereYouWorked #OneTeam — Morgan Bell 1667537534000 (@livelovegeek)”
The hashtag #Lovewhereyouwork was trending, signifying Twitter’s recent start to its mass layoff program.
Another member of the Twitter product marketing team, Rachel Bonn, faced the axe too.
“Actually, the final day that Twitter was Twitter was last Thursday in the SF office. 9-month-old and eight months pregnant. Just lost laptop access #LoveWhereYouWorked, “She tweeted.
Earlier, Los Angeles-based trial lawyer Lisa Bloom, who represents people who have experienced discrimination, harassment, and abuse, published a thorough Twitter thread outlining the consequences of breaking the WARN Act.
“The WARN Act imposes civil fines of $500 per day for each violation on employers like Twitter. This may be significant given the large number of employees, though perhaps not to Elon [Musk], “She tweeted.
She added that Twitter will be responsible for paying all of these (civil fines, lost wages, lost medical benefits, and attorneys’ costs) for the 60 days during which it neglected to give workers notice.
