Twitter ex-employees demand $500 million in severance pay, file lawsuits

Several former Twitter employees have filed lawsuits against the company saying it hasn't paid them their dues. The amount demanded through these lawsuits is over $500 million, according to several media outlets.

This month, Chris Woodfield, a former senior engineer of Twitter, filed a lawsuit in Delaware claiming the company targeted him and others because of old age. This claim isn't present in other similar cases, according to Reuters.

Targeted because of old age

Woodfield, who is based in Seattle, said Twitter promised every laid-off employee would receive two months' salary and other benefits. However, the company went back on its promise, the senior engineer says in his petition.

Chris Woodfield's petition accuses Twitter of fraud and breach of contract.Furthermore, it says that the petitioner was targeted because of his old age. However, the complainant did not specify how old he was.

Litany of complaints

A similar complaint was filed by former Twitter employees in a California court alleging that the company did not honour its promise regarding severance pay and other benefits. The total value of the severance benefits, that Twitter didn't pay, runs into $500 million and more.

The California lawsuit accuses Twitter of violating a federal law regarding compensation to laid off workers.

Twitter has faced other lawsuits that accuse the company of disproportionate layoffs, targeting women and people with disabilities and not providing sufficient notice of layoffs. The company has also not given bonuses to certain employees, according to those lawsuits.

Elon Musk acquired Twitter last year and followed up this acquisition by firing thousands of employees. He has changed several of the company's policies regarding user verification, blue tick marks and the number of tweets a user can see in a day.

Post the acquisition, Twitter's ad revenues have  declined significantly.

Keep watching our YouTube Channel ‘DNP INDIA’. Also, please subscribe and follow us on FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM, and TWITTER.