Elon Musk is currently facing a $128 million lawsuit from four former Twitter executives for allegedly not paying them severance packages after acquiring the social network. The lawsuit, filed in California on Monday, follows a previous legal complaint from rank-and-file employees seeking $500 million in unpaid severance pay.
According to the complaint, “Mr. Musk decided not to provide severance packages to the plaintiffs, so he terminated them without valid cause, invented a false cause, and enlisted employees from various companies to support his decision.”
The four individuals in the lawsuit are former Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, former CFO Ned Segal, former general counsel Sean Ejit, and former CLO Vijaya Segal, as well as Mr. Gadde. Following Musk’s acquisition of Twitter for $44 billion in 2022, he conducted a mass layoff, claiming at the time that these executives were terminated for cause and therefore not entitled to severance pay.
The lawsuit states, “The ’cause’ was not ‘a business decision approved by the board of directors that Mr. Musk disagrees with.’ In the termination letter, he accused each plaintiff of ‘gross negligence’ and ‘willful misconduct’ without providing any evidence to support this allegation.” Neither Mr. Musk nor Mr. No has commented publicly on the matter, and Alex Spiro, a lawyer who often represents Mr. Musk, has not responded to requests for comment.
This lawsuit is one of several linked to Musk’s involuntary takeover of Twitter and subsequent operation of the platform, now named X. Furthermore, the National Labor Relations Board filed a complaint earlier this year, alleging that Musk’s SpaceX unlawfully terminated eight employees after they criticized his leadership.
After assuming control of the company, Musk disclosed that he laid off approximately 80% of Twitter’s staff during an interview with the BBC last year. Since Musk’s acquisition, the platform has encountered numerous challenges, including a decrease in advertising revenue and a rise in hate speech as content moderation efforts were scaled back. Although Musk initially attempted to withdraw from the deal, Twitter sued to enforce its completion.
Musk attributed the decline in ad revenue to anti-hate watchdog groups that released a report detailing racist and extremist content on the platform. He is currently engaged in ongoing legal battles against two of these organizations, Media Matters and the Center for Countering Digital Hate. A California judge is expected to make a decision this week on whether to dismiss the lawsuit against the Center for Countering Digital Hate.
Source: www.theguardian.com
