San Francisco-based social media giant Twitter notified state and local agencies on Friday of plans to lay off nearly 800 employees who had worked at the building on Market Street.
Twitter layoffs under new CEO Elon Musk, prompted a class action lawsuit filed Thursday in federal court in San Francisco by employees who alleged the firings violated state and federal employment laws.
The lawsuit, filed by attorney Shannon Liss-Riordan on behalf of Twitter employees at the company's offices in San Francisco and Cambridge, Massachusetts, alleges that Musk's plans to lay off employees are not permitted under the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act as well as the state's WARN Act.
Federal law requires businesses with 100 or more full-time employees to provide at least 60 calendar days' notice of a closing or layoff affecting 500 or more employees at a single worksite.
One employee included in the lawsuit says he was notified earlier this week of his firing without notice, while others said they were locked out of their accounts this week.
On Friday, a letter sent by Twitter's human resources department to the state Employment Development Department and San Francisco city officials said 784 employees at the company's offices at 1355 Market St. would be laid off, but the layoffs would not take effect until Jan. 4, 2023.
On Friday afternoon, Musk acknowledged the layoffs, writing on Twitter that