The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in the US District Court for the Northern District of California on behalf of a group of employees laid off following Musk’s acquisition of the company in late October 2022. According to the complaint , the lead plaintiff in the case is Courtney McMillian, who worked in Twitter’s human resources department from August 2020 until the date of her termination on January 4, 2023.
The filing alleges that prior to the change of ownership, the company had a severance pay plan, which was an employee benefit plan under the Employee Retirement Security Act of 1974 (ERISA). Before closing the deal, Musk and Twitter repeatedly assured employees that the company would continue to pay as planned, according to the complaint. However, after its acquisition, Twitter and Musk were unable to make promised payments to some 6,000 laid-off employees.
McMillian also claims that Twitter’s severance pay entitles senior employees to six months of base salary plus an additional week of pay for each full year of service. Junior employees are entitled to two months’ base salary, as well as compensation for several months of labor costs, she said. McMillian accuses Musk of using a rogue strategy to “keep employees with severance pay promises in the plan and then deny its existence when the employees were fired.”
Twitter has become the target of numerous lawsuits related to its massive layoffs of employees, the Variety publication specifies. In May, a federal judge dismissed a proposed class action lawsuit against the service that claimed the company aimed to fire female employees, saying the complaint lacked specific details. Also in May, a court threw out a lawsuit alleging that Twitter discriminated against employees with disabilities by requiring them to report to work in person and maintain an “extremely harsh” work culture.
