Twitter petitioned the court on Friday to either transfer the claims to Delaware – where disputes over Musk’s acquisition of Twitter are supposed to be resolved – or dismiss potential class claims.
Twitter argues that the employees who brought the lawsuit themselves have different circumstances, and they haven’t properly stated what broad claims a large potential class of Twitter employees would have.
An updated version of the employees’ complaint filed earlier this month stated that one employee had already been laid off, while the others’ official end dates at Twitter are January and February 2023.
According to Twitter’s lawyers, the employees’ claims were vague and imprecise, and the court should dismiss their effort to bring claims on behalf of such a large group of Twitter employees.
The plaintiffs make only passing reference to ‘thousands of other Twitter employees’ or ‘other similarly situated Twitter employees,'” Twitter said in a court filing on Dec. 23.
Shannon Liss-Riordan, an attorney for the employees, told Insider Sunday night that they are confident of their claims.
“We will do everything we can to protect Twitter employees’ rights,” Liss-Riordan said.
Elon Musk is supposed to show some holiday spirit and honor the law and promises he made to Twitter employees, she added. “If not, we are ready to take him on in 2023.”
Insider’s request for comment on Sunday night was not immediately responded to by Twitter’s attorneys.
Twitter employees filed the lawsuit, arguing that the layoffs came so abruptly and offered so little severance that it contradicted assurances they’d been given before Musk’s purchase.
In the aftermath of the takeover, Musk instructed employees to return to the office, even though they expected to continue working remotely for a year. They also claimed that many of them are being offered only one month’s severance pay, not two months or more, as they said Twitter typically offered before Musk’s takeover.
A Twitter lawyer told the court that the employees who brought the lawsuit have different issues, and they should be handled differently. Only one of them has already been let go – Emmanuel Cornet, who claims he was fired without warning on Nov. 1.
The other employees, who are only officially being let go over the next two months, have received the requisite 60 days notice under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, a federal law that asks large companies to adequately notify staff of mass layoffs.
