Twitter has the authority to require former employees suing over their termination to pursue their claims with individual arbitration instead of a class-action suit after the company secured a ruling from the court.
U.S. District Judge James Donato granted Twitter’s request, forcing the company’s ex-employees to follow the terms of their contracts by pursuing their claims individually.
On Friday, the San Francisco federal judge ruled that five former Twitter employees that proposed a class-action lawsuit after the company fired them without adequate notice after its acquisition by Elon Musk must pursue their claims in private arbitration.
Donato delayed his decision to dismiss the entire class-action case based on the possible new developments in the case, noting that three employees who allegedly opted out of the company’s arbitration agreement have joined the lawsuit after it was first filed.
After Musk acquired the company, Twitter terminated up to 5,500 contractors without prior notification, and the lawyer representing the plaintiffs in this case — Shannon Liss-Riordan — says she had already filed 300 demands for arbitration on behalf of ex-Twitter employees, with hundreds more to come.
All the claims made by the ex-employees accuse the company of neglecting to pay the complete severance package promised by Twitter before Musk took over.
Some ex-employees also blame Twitter for various legal violations since Musk’s acquisition of the company, including sex or disability discrimination.
Last year, Donato ruled that Twitter must notify the thousands of its workers, laid off after Musk took over the company, of the pending class action lawsuit accusing the company of failing to give adequate notice before terminating them, which could affect them and which they could join.
In a three-page order, Donato said that Twitter must provide “a succinct and plainly worded notice” of the lawsuit before asking workers to sign any severance agreements waiving their rights to sue the company.
Additionally, Twitter is facing at least three complaints made to a U.S. labor board claiming the company fired workers for trying to organize a strike, criticizing the business, and other conduct protected by federal labor law.
A senior Twitter executive at Dublin, who had to get a court relief against layoffs, stated that Musk has been firing and rehiring staff with “no apparent logic” behind his actions.
After firing nearly half the workforce from the company, with hundreds leaving on their own afterward, Musk said that the layoffs were over and that the company would start hiring to replace those who resigned or got fired.
Read More Software News:
Turn Outlines and Images Into Digital Art Using Picsart’s SketchAI
Why Elon Musk Will Likely Lose ‘Funding Secured’ Tweet Trial?