Key Takeaways
- Former Twitter staff allege Musk failed to deliver the promised $500 million in severance.
- The lawsuit demands full severance terms for all employees terminated since Musk’s takeover.
- Case filed in the Northern District of California court, highlighting legal risks of large tech acquisitions.
Washington: Former Twitter employees have filed a lawsuit against the company and its owner, Elon Musk, over denial to pay them at least $500 million in severance packages, a lawsuit read.
“An Order compelling Defendants to provide the full terms of severance according to the Plan to all terminated employees from the date of Mr. Musk’s takeover of the company to one year from the date of judgment, an amount that is no less than $500 million, plus pre-judgment and post-judgment interest at the maximum legal rate,” the lawsuit said.
The complaint was filed on Wednesday in the US District Court for the Northern District of California with Courtney McMillian, who was an employee in Twitter’s HR department, as the lead plaintiff in the case.
In late October 2022, Musk finalized the $44 billion acquisition of Twitter, a US company founded in 2006, and headquartered in San Francisco, California. Following the takeover, Musk changed the company’s day-to-day operations, including the termination of Twitter executives who were responsible for the platform’s privacy, cybersecurity and censorship, as well as about two-thirds of Twitter’s employees.
