Twitter blamed the delayed severance deals on the lawsuit

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Some Twitter staffers who were fired in November finally got their separation agreements on Saturday. Twitter said it could have sent the documents “earlier”, but was delayed by a court order. The email did not provide details, but may relate to one of the lawsuits over how Elon Musk handled the layoffs. LoadingSomething is being loaded.

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Fired Twitter staff had to wait anxiously for two months to get their severance agreements from the company. When they finally arrived, Twitter blamed the delay on staff who filed a lawsuit related to their dismissal.

The social media giant laid off thousands of workers on November 4. Twitter finally followed through on their separation agreements on Saturday in emails from administrative services company CPT Group.

In a follow-up email from Twitter’s HR team, which Insider saw, the company said: “Please note that we would have sent you these agreements earlier, but a court order obtained by plaintiffs’ attorneys caused this delay.”

“Thank you for your patience,” the email continues.

The email did not specify details of the court order, which appears to have been made in one of the lawsuits Twitter has been facing in federal court in California over Elon Musk’s handling of layoffs since his death. he took over the platform in October.

In a lawsuit filed by a group of employees in varying stages of layoffs, a California federal court has agreed that Twitter should alert employees receiving severance agreements about relevant pending lawsuits.

This lawsuit was filed by plaintiffs including Emmanuel Cornet, whom Twitter fired in early November, and others who are officially fired this month and next.

California federal court finalized the wording of the notice on Dec. 20, according to the court filing, which attorney Shannon Liss-Riordan, who is representing the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, told Insider he had enough time for Twitter to send it sooner.

Some former Twitter employees told Insider’s Kali Hays that they were disappointed with the severance package the company ultimately offered them. The contracts offer a month of severance pay in exchange for former workers agreeing not to participate in lawsuits against Twitter or speak publicly about the company.

Musk previously said people who leave the company will be given three months of layoff.

Liss-Riordan told Insider that the court order gives Twitter enough time to send out the agreements at least before the Jan. 4, 2023, end date given to some terminated employees.

“It’s disappointing, but sadly not unexpected, that Elon Musk is trying to save money by ripping off his new hires and not paying them what they were promised,” she said. “We look forward to taking him on in court, in arbitration, wherever we need to, in order to recover what is owed to them.”

The purpose of the notice was so employees could “know their options when deciding whether or not to accept the agreement,” Liss-Riordan said.

The Cornet lawsuit alleged that Musk’s abrupt mass layoffs violated notice requirements set by laws such as the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Act (WARN), which requires employees to get 60 days notice. days for layoffs.

Twitter employees also said that before Musk’s takeover, the company reassured them that they would be entitled to the same severance package as usual, even if Musk came in and made layoffs. . According to the lawsuit, those perks offered by Twitter before Musk’s takeover included two or more months of severance pay, as well as other bonuses.

Mortgage startup Better, which had laid off a large group of employees in 2021 during a large Zoom meeting, offered them more severance to account for the legally required notice period they did not receive.

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