Judge puts the KIBOSH on class-action lawsuit filed against Elon Musk by former Twitter employees

Five former Twitter employees brought a class-action lawsuit ago against Elon Musk and have been ordered to drop the lawsuit.

The problem is that the employees signed arbitration agreements and the judge is forcing them back into arbitration.

Here’s more from Business Insider:

Five laid-off Twitter workers have been forced to drop their class-action lawsuit against the company and have been ordered by a judge to file individual claims for arbitration instead.

US District Judge James Donato ruled in Twitter’s favor in an order on Friday, saying that the former workers had signed arbitration agreements as part of their employment contracts with Twitter, which said they would bring legal disputes against the company in arbitration rather than in court and included a class-action waiver.

“Twitter provided signed copies of the agreements, and they are all clear and straightforward,” Donato wrote in the order.

Since Elon Musk took ownership of the company in late October, Twitter has laid off thousands of workers. Musk has said that these former employees would get three months of severance pay and the lawsuit says that Twitter repeatedly told its staff prior to the acquisition that even under the billionaire’s control they would still get separation packages at least as good as those previously promised by the company, which included two months of severance pay.

But many laid-off staff haven’t been given this, instead being offered just one month of severance pay. The class-action lawsuit accused Twitter of breach of contract, claiming that it should give laid-off employees their promised two months’ severance pay alongside the two months’ non-working pay they have already received under Twitter’s efforts to avoid violating the WARN Act, which requires that companies give notice of mass layoffs.

The dispute-resolution agreements, provided to the workers alongside their employment contracts, state that disputes including ones related to termination must be “resolved only by an arbitrator through final and binding arbitration and not by way of court or jury trial.”

Donato said that the five initial plaintiffs who filed their complaint on November 3 “are ordered to arbitration on an individual basis.”

In a nutshell Elon Musk wins in court and that’s exactly what should happen since they signed these agreements.

What’s ironic about this is that the judge is not a Trump or Bush appointee. Judge James Donato is an Obama appointee. Wouldn’t-a thunk it.


Comment Policy: Please read our comment policy before making a comment. In short, please be respectful of others and do not engage in personal attacks. Otherwise we will revoke your comment privileges.