U.S. District Judge James Donato has ruled that employees fired by Elon Musk from Twitter cannot file a class action lawsuit against the social media giant, but must instead file individual complaints in order to pursue legal action for alleged improper notice that they would be let go.
The ruling was limited to five former employees who were pursuing a proposed class action suit, reported Reuters. The employees sought to accuse Twitter of “failing to give adequate notice before laying them off after its acquisition” by Musk.
If they decide to move forward, Reuters explained, the plaintiffs must now “pursue their claims in private arbitration.”
Musk fired about 3,700 employees shortly after acquiring Twitter, and hundreds more resigned in the following days. At the time, the former employees charged that Musk targeted some of them based on gender or failed to properly pay severance.
BREAKING REPORT: Class Action Lawsuit Against Twitter for Wrongful Termination Filed by Former Employees BLOCKED – Judge Rules It Has No Legal Basis…
— Chuck Callesto (@ChuckCallesto) January 15, 2023
Donato, an Obama appointee, stopped short of throwing out the entire class action lawsuit, however, noting that he would make this decision “as warranted by developments in the case” while noting that three new individuals had joined the lawsuit after it was filed.
Reuters reports that a lawyer for the plaintiffs claims to have filed 300 demands for arbitration against Twitter by ex-employees fired by Musk.
Since firing these former employees, Musk has embarked on a weeks long mission – the “Twitter Files” – to expose the activities of his former employees and the former management of Twitter.
A big win for Elon as he approaches his fourth month as Twitter CEO. https://t.co/Xy2G9dZ9aU
— Ben Kew 🐶 (@ben_kew) January 16, 2023
Thus far, we have learned that Twitter acquiesced to an impressive number of requests from both Democrats and intelligence agencies, with average employees happily going along with censorship as requested by superiors.
Perhaps fearing the a lack of control over Twitter, shortly after Musk acquired the platform, the Biden White House told the press that it was closely monitoring Musk’s Twitter to determine if it could act.
