Twitter Criticized for Avoiding Legal Dispute Regarding Musk’s Job Cuts

According to a lawsuit, Twitter Inc. is declining to participate in arbitration with former employees who were terminated when Elon Musk assumed control of the company. These employees were encouraged to use the arbitration process to address their grievances regarding unpaid wages, unfulfilled severance agreements, and alleged discrimination.

The company, now known as X Corp., has been accused in multiple lawsuits of numerous labor and workplace violations, including failing to pay thousands of workers laid off late last year after acquiring Musk. About 2,000 former Twitter employees have resorted to fighting their claims in arbitration, as the company has demanded — but Twitter hasn’t shown up, according to a complaint filed Monday in federal court in San Francisco.

In January, the social media platform won a ruling that required employees who had signed an arbitration agreement to resolve their grievances behind closed doors overseen by private judges, instead of filing a class action in open court. It is the legal equivalent of hand-to-hand combat, usually against a better armed and funded opponent. Studies have shown that it is in the company’s interest that employees often give up rather than continue their fight in arbitration.

Shannon Liss-Riordan, a lawyer representing former Twitter employees in several lawsuits against the company, has continued to file arbitrations on behalf of individual employees.

Twitter refuses to pay arbitration fees as required by its employment contracts, according to the complaint. Twitter further hurts its former employees by “failing, neglecting and refusing to arbitrate under its own written agreement,” according to the complaint.

Twitter declined to comment.

The case is Fabien Ho Ching Ma v. Twitter, 23-cv-03301, US District Court, Northern District of California (San Francisco).