Fired Twitter UK staff accuse the company of using a 'sham' redundancy process
Twitter accused of 'unlawful, unfair and completely unacceptable treatment' of sacked employees
Dozens of former Twitter employees in the UK who were fired after Elon Musk completed his buyout of the business are suing the firm for violating their severance terms.
In a letter issued to Twitter on Tuesday, London law firm Winckworth Sherwood accused the company of conducting a "fake redundancy procedure" and subjecting employees to "unlawful, unfair and completely unacceptable treatment" during the lay-offs.
The letter said that if the concerns of the sacked employees are not addressed, they intend to take their grievances to an employment tribunal.
Winckworth Sherwood is representing 43 of the more than 180 British Twitter employees who were let go in the company's extensive lay-offs in November, according to The Guardian.
Soon after Musk purchased Twitter in a $44 billion deal, Twitter laid off around 50% of its 7,500 worldwide employees.
According to Winckworth, UK Twitter employees who were let go received two months' worth of gross basic pay in addition to an extra two weeks' worth of gross basic salary for each year of service.
However, this fell short of the company's severance terms agreed before Musk became CEO, as well as those granted by other large tech firms.
Meta provided 16 weeks of basic pay to staff who were made redundant in November.
Additionally, the law firm claimed that Twitter dismissed employees in violation of the law by denying them access to computers and offices the day the cutbacks were announced, and that cuts were made before attempting to implement a proper redundancy programme.
Under UK law, if a company plans to eliminate more than 100 positions, there must be at least a 45-day consultation process between the firm and the "at risk" workers before any redundancies can be made.
An additional possible violation of the law, according to Winckworth, is Twitter's failure to develop fair selection criteria for redundancy.
The law firm warned the case might be taken to an employment tribunal if a solution is not reached.
"We consider that an employment tribunal will take an extremely dim view of the company ' s failings to date, not least having regard to its size, resources and access to legal advice," said lawyers at Winckworth Sherwood in the letter.
Twitter is also criticised in the letter for not responding to formal complaints made by individual employees.
At least 200 arbitration requests for legal grievances have already been made against Twitter in the US. Four class action lawsuits have also been filed by employees who were terminated in the US.
The legal challenges come as Musk increases his cost-cutting efforts at Twitter, warning that failure to restore the company's financial health may result in a $3 billion annual negative cash flow or possibly bankruptcy.
Earlier this month, one of Twitter's landlords sued the company for failing to pay rent on its office space in San Francisco.
The landlord, Columbia Reit - 650 California LLC, alleged the company was refusing to pay rent of $136,260 for its office space located on the 30th floor of the Hartford Building.
A private jet firm also filed a lawsuit against Twitter last month after the firm refused to pay nearly $200,000 for two charter trips taken in October.