Musk laid off roughly 50% of Twitter’s more than 7,000 employees on Nov 4, just a week after taking control of the company. Almost 1,000 of those who were terminated lived in California, according to documents filed with the state. Those workers were required under state and federal law to keep receiving regular paychecks over the past two months.
Lawyer Shannon Liss-Riordan said hundreds of Twitter workers she represents have now had their last day at the company and have received no severance notice or pay. Twitter has asked the judge in San Francisco overseeing the severance suit to throw it out or, alternatively, move it to Delaware where Twitter has litigated other cases including the fight over his buyout of the company. To the degree the suit remains intact, wherever it eventually lands, Twitter argues its former employees are bound by contractual agreements requiring them to resolve any disputes with the company in closed-door arbitration rather than in open court.