Musk accused of redundancy ‘sham’ by former Twitter UK staff

Lawyers representing ex-employees threaten to take legal action against social media giant

FORMER Twitter UK staff sacked by Elon Musk have accused the billionaire of a “sham redundancy process” and threatened legal action against the company.

Lawyers representing 43 ex-twitter employees wrote to the company on Tuesday to protest at the way the redundancies were handled.

In a letter, seen by The Daily Telegraph, the law firm Winckworth Sherwood said the mass lay-offs in November were “unlawful, unfair and completely unacceptable treatment”.

The firm said its clients would take Twitter to an employment tribunal if their complaints are not dealt with.

Mr Musk has enacted sweeping layoffs at the social media company he bought for $44bn (£36bn) last year, in some cases locking staff out of IT systems with no notice.

In Britain, companies making more than 100 redundancies are required to launch a consultation of 45 days over the jobs at risk. About 180 Twitter UK staff were laid off last year by Mr Musk.

The lawyers accuse Twitter of sacking staff without proper process, logging them out of computers and locking them out of offices, before retrospectively launching a formal redundancy consultation.

The letter stated that Twitter had made “unjustified”, “disrespectful” and “draconian” efforts to cut off staff without notice, which made it “virtually impossible” for employees to coordinate during the redundancy.

The lawyers added that some staff were contacted on Dec 23 after business hours ended to book a consultation with the company’s HR teams. In some cases, the company tried to demand staff accept a settlement agreement before attending any meeting, the letter claims. The legal letter said the job cuts were being “led by fiat from the US … without regard for English law”.

Twitter is facing hundreds of legal complaints over how the dismissals were handled in America as several class action complaints. Mr Musk sacked more than half of Twitter’s 7,500 staff in November last year.

Lisa Bloom, a US lawyer acting for some Twitter staff in America, said: “Twitter workers, many of whom I represent, were finally given their ‘severance agreements’ on Saturday. They are really settlement agreements which silence workers for life and require them to give up important legal rights.”

In November, Mr Musk claimed that “everyone exited was offered [three] months of severance, which is 50pc more than legally required”.

Over the weekend, some staff began to receive proposals from Twitter after months of waiting. Many were offered only one month of pay, which requires they agree not to criticise the company or to engage in any legal action against it, as well as to forfeit any future bonuses or stock payouts.

In Britain, staff were offered two months’ basic pay plus two weeks of pay for each year they had worked at the company, the reported.