Live data from Hacker News

Twitter faces a class action lawsuit over mass employee layoffs with proper

techcrunch.com

171–180 of 295 posts

Re: Twitter faces a class action lawsuit over mass employee layoffs with proper

#171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is exactly it. Terminated technically means, no longer receiving compensation or benefits. If Musk is basically saying “stop working” and we will pay you for the next 60 days (and even beyond), then this is completely legal as long as they are not restricted from seeking other employment during this “notice period” Edit: IANAL

It's almost as if Elon is being sued to ensure that he follows through with his obligations, since he's so consistently doesn't. Strange. It's like there is a purpose to the lawsuit.

[deleted]

Re: Twitter faces a class action lawsuit over mass employee layoffs with proper

#172
post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So 3 months of gardening leave with benefits and a final Feb 1 RSU vest. That seems completely fair and reasonable if it's accurate.

It'll be interesting to see if any of them are bold enough to argue that their ability to exert influence over the public via their role at twitter was a material part of their compensation.

You apparently have a very negative view of people who work at Twitter. I worked there for 4.5 years and literally no one I worked with or knew of there would ever make such an argument. The only people who even really have a claim to such an argument got last week and we haven't heard a thing from them, although I'm anticipating some sort of lawsuit having to be filed to recover the real USD compensation owed to them for their summary firing "for cause."

Re: Twitter faces a class action lawsuit over mass employee layoffs with proper

#173
post #18

There is no WARN act violation if the employee receives 60 days of severance and some consideration for vesting. Is there any evidence that didn’t happen?

Is the lawsuit itself not evidence? Do you think employees are sitting there thinking "let's waste money and time on a lawsuit that will have no impact." There must have been some good faith believe that Musk had no intention of providing severance. Is that really so hard to believe from the outside?

The employees who lawyered up before seeing any official termination documentation are probably on the hook for any legal fees incurred so far. Now that it appears that an appropriate work suspension and notice of termination date (essentially severance) was granted, its likely that there wont be many offers from lawyers to act on contingency fees.

Re: Twitter faces a class action lawsuit over mass employee layoffs with proper

#174
post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can’t sue someone in advance of wrongdoing

So you're saying that a law firm has decided to risk it by filing this lawsuit on behalf of a few no-name Twitter employees? You can't ascribe 5-d chess skills to Musk on this one, he's lost the benefit of the doubt.

No I am saying the lawyers are suing for something that has already occurred. Specifically not giving the proper advance notice as required by law.

Re: Twitter faces a class action lawsuit over mass employee layoffs with proper

#175
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to a leak to Business Insider[0], they are still "employed" but are not allowed to work. [0] https://www.businessinsider.com/read-blunt-email-telling-twi...

Good luck even showing actual damages then. Employment lawsuits from line employees really aren’t that scary to big companies. The case law in California at least is quite clear. I’m not a lawyer, but the source for this information is a lawyer I conferred with. He said legally I had a solid case but he wasn’t interested in 30% of three months compensation. Actual damages are practically capped around 3 months on the…

There's a reason this is a class action lawsuit.

Re: Twitter faces a class action lawsuit over mass employee layoffs with proper

#176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I may white knight for one of the most powerful men in history for a moment: It's entirely possible that Bezos and his wife just drifted apart over the decades and separated amicably. And half of that fortune was always Mackenzie's from the start, that's how marriage works in the USA.

They announced the divorce one day prior to his having an affair hitting the news cycle.

I mean we don't know anything about the internals of their relationship, and "hitting the news cycle is" I guess just some arbitrary hassle from their point of view. We could suppose that they grew distant, they basically separated, he started a new relationship/affair, and then they formalized the divorce.

Regardless, their money was realistically getting split anyway, so the decision of when to start the affair probably didn't cost him anything.

Re: Twitter faces a class action lawsuit over mass employee layoffs with proper

#177
It will be interesting to see how they approach these layoffs in countries like the UK or most of the EU, where you can't just fire people for no reason.

I have seen some reports of Twitter employees in the UK being told they've been laid off, but that's simply not legal in te UK.

For a company the size of Twitter, a process must be followed:

https://www.gov.uk/redundancy-your-rights/consultation

The company can be forced to reinstate the employee if the company has been found to have ignored the law.

Delaying the layoff until January doesn't remove the legal obligations Twitter has.

Re: Twitter faces a class action lawsuit over mass employee layoffs with proper

#178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shareholders were being offered a very nice premium on the stock price, so Twitter upper management would have been awash in shareholder lawsuits if they'd rejected the deal. Essentially, the Twitter board was snookered once Musk made a serious offer.

I'm curious if this (lawsuits) has happened before.

https://www.google.com/search?q=shareholder+lawsuit+buyout+r...

Re: Twitter faces a class action lawsuit over mass employee layoffs with proper

#179
post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So 3 months of gardening leave with benefits and a final Feb 1 RSU vest. That seems completely fair and reasonable if it's accurate.

It'll be interesting to see if any of them are bold enough to argue that their ability to exert influence over the public via their role at twitter was a material part of their compensation.

There's usually at least one person who's willing to say the quiet part out loud in situations like this. Though, I imagine they'll complain about it on Twitter rather than trying to make a federal case out of it.

Re: Twitter faces a class action lawsuit over mass employee layoffs with proper

#180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

pb7 is probably correct here, as they are in many things. Elon probably knows what he's doing, you don't get to that level of businessmen without making all the right decisions.

> you don't get to that level of businessmen without making all the right decisions C'mon; he literally just tried desperately to get out of the Twitter deal that's the direct cause of these layoffs. Jeff Bezos's decisions about where to stick his weiner cost him tens of billions of dollars. No one makes "all the right decisions".

> Jeff Bezos's decisions about where to stick his weiner cost him tens of billions of dollars.

People are allowed to want to divorce without it being referred to as "where he sticks his weiner". I think what grosses me out is that revenge porn was laid thickly on top of this that people just actively ignored.

Post reply on HN