A judge has ordered terminated Twitter employees to withdraw their class action lawsuit against the company, which accuses Twitter of failing to provide the promised severance pay.
US District Judge James Donato ruled on Friday that in light of the employment agreement the employees signed with Twitter, they must present their claims in private arbitration.
The Judge Says The Ex-Staff's Contracts Contained A Class Action Waiver
The court found that Twitter's contract "expressly" says that arbitration is not required and that there is a provision for employees to choose not to participate in the process.
The judge claims that workers did not choose to forego arbitration, which would have given them the opportunity to resolve their dispute in court.
The ruling points out that a class action waiver was also included in Twitter's contract, according to The Verge.
The judge also ruled that the agreements, which Twitter gave signed copies of, are all simple and understandable.
The judge will determine later what to do with the three additional workers who joined the lawsuit in December, even though five of the employees have been directed to arbitration on an individual basis.
It can be remembered that the ex-Twitter employees initially filed the class action lawsuit in November, claiming that Twitter failed to give them adequate notice before firing them.
They were discovered to have broken the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, which mandates that companies give 60 days' notice before mass layoffs.
Later, they added charges that Twitter violated their contract by failing to pay them the severance compensation they are due.
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The Former Employees Are Part Of The Mass Layoffs Under Elon Musk
As part of Elon Musk's cost-cutting strategy, Twitter let go about 3,700 workers in the first few days of November, and hundreds more later tendered their resignations.
Additionally, the social network was charged in December of last year with a number of legal offenses related to Musk's purchase of the company, according to dozens of former employees.
Moreover, former employees claim that the company has targeted women in particular for layoffs and has failed to provide the promised severance, Wio News reports.
Furthermore, Twitter is dealing with at least three labor board complaints alleging that employees were fired for speaking out against the business, seeking to organize a strike, and other actions covered by federal labor law.
When he originally took control of the company, Twitter CEO Musk initially committed to a three-month notice period.
However, many workers impacted by Musk's mass layoffs claim they only received one month's salary in addition to the two months of non-working pay they were also entitled to under the WARN Act.
According to the lawsuit, employees ought to be paid for at least two months' worth of labor as well as time off, according to The Verge.
The lawyer for the Twitter employees, Shannon Liss-Riordan, commented on the decision in a tweet.
"We anticipated this and that's why we have already filed 500 individual arbitration demands - and counting," Liss-Riordan states.
Twitter still needs to respond to accusations in court on top of the arbitration battles, so this is not a victory for Musk, the lawyer adds.
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