Dive Brief:
- Twitter cut “vast ranks” of contractors last weekend, who were removed from work email and Slack accounts before being notified of the company’s decision, Axios reported Saturday.
- The outlet’s report was corroborated by Business Insider, which published a leaked internal email to the workers as well as statements from contractors who had been employed by Pennsylvania-based Surya Systems. Neither Twitter nor Surya Systems responded to HR Dive requests for comment filed via online form.
- In the email, Twitter said the contractors were dropped as part of a “reprioritization and savings exercise.” The decision came just days after the company axed thousands of employees, prompting a segment of those workers to file suit, alleging that Twitter violated the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act as well as California law.
Dive Insight:
To call the social media giant’s ongoing makeover an anomaly in the HR space, let alone the M&A space, may be understatement. Following Twitter’s $44 billion acquisition led by incoming CEO Elon Musk, the company began cutting top executives and lower-level employees, creating a volatile situation with a high level of uncertainty, according to sources who previously spoke to HR Dive.
Contractors aren’t being notified at all, they’re just losing access to Slack and email. Managers figured it out when their workers just disappeared from the system.
— Casey Newton (@CaseyNewton) November 13, 2022
They heard nothing from their leaders
Employees filed suit against Twitter on Nov. 3, alleging that the company failed to provide advanced written warning of the initial wave of layoffs as required under the WARN Act and California law. On Nov. 9, the employees filed an emergency motion requesting a protective order to prevent Twitter from seeking releases from employees it laid off without notifying them of the pending suit.
As part of the Nov. 9 filing, plaintiffs alleged that the company may have already issued such releases to impacted employees “without employees having any reason to know that they have legal claims to higher severance than Twitter is offering and that these claims have already been filed on their behalf.”
One day later, counsel for the employees followed up with another emergency motion seeking to shorten the time allotted for Twitter to respond to the Nov. 9 motion and that a hearing be “promptly” scheduled.
