On Thursday, four former Twitter employees suing the business spoke out about the mass layoffs, citing worker rights violations.
“It seems like those layoffs have been done in a way that’s very clumsy and inhumane and potentially illegal.” Former Twitter engineer Emmanuel “Manu” Cornet said at a press conference outside San Francisco’s Phillip Burton Federal Building & United States Courthouse.
Elon Musk took over Twitter in November and fired Cornet. Cornet and other former Twitter employees claim in a lawsuit that the company violated federal and California labor laws that require 60-day written notice of mass layoffs.
After Musk’s acquisition, Twitter’s legal issues grew. Musk cut over half of Twitter’s 7,500 employees to decrease costs.
Shannon Liss-Riordan, a labor lawyer representing former Twitter employees and contractors, filed four class action lawsuits against the company. Disabled staff alleges that Musk’s desire for “hardcore” labor from the office caused them to quit due to health concerns.
Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, has bought this company as a toy, but people’s lives are at stake here, according to Liss-Riordan. The latest case, filed on Wednesday, claims that Twitter laid off 57% of women and 47% of men.
Twitter, which fired its communications team, declined to comment on the lawsuits. Some laid-off workers joined the cases to help friends and former coworkers.
Willow Wren Turkal, a former Twitter engineer and main plaintiff in the gender discrimination action, said she knows former employees who have children, visa concerns, or are just starting their careers.
“I want them to come out of this getting what is due to them,” she stated.
