A federal judge in San Francisco ruled that the thousands of employees that were being laid off after the Twitter acquisition by Elon Musk should have notified them.
The judge added that the employees of a proposed class must take action and blamed the company for failing to provide any proper notice about the layoff before terminating the employees.
James Donato, the district judge of the united states on Wednesday said that Twitter must provide workers “succinct and plainly worded notice” of the lawsuit that was filed last month before asking workers to sign a severance agreement waiving their ability to sue the company in a three-page long order.
Earlier in November due to a cost-cutting measure of the company by Elon Musk as the company was making losses, the social media company Twitter laid off around 3500 employees, and after the implementation of the ultimatum hundred of employees subsequently resigned.
The mass layoffs required a 60 days notice by federal and California laws which Twitter failed to give, the lawsuit said. But Twitter has rejected the misconduct.
Judge Donato told appealing to workers to reject legal claims against Twitter without notifying them about the lawsuit would be deceiving.
The releases from laid-off workers should not be seek agreed upon by Twitter, pending Donato’s conclusion.
A lawyer from the plaintiffs Shannon Liss-Riordan called the decision “a basic but important step that will provide employees with the opportunity to more fully understand their rights instead of just signing them away.”
When asked for comment Twitter did not respond.
Since most of the company’s employees signed agreements requiring them to bring legal disputes in arbitration and waive their right to join class actions, the company argued that the notice was unnecessary.
The case is scheduled for arbitration next month when Donato will hear Twitter’s motion. This month, the plaintiffs amended their complaint to include workers who claim they never signed arbitration agreements.
Twitter is encountering three different proposed class actions in the same court over the firings. According to the lawsuits, Twitter failed to give contract workers notice before terminating them, as well as discriminated against women and disabled employees. As of yet, the company has not responded to those claims.
The plaintiff in all the lawsuits, Liss-Riordan, has indicated she may bring additional employment claims against Twitter, including if the company denies severance pay to laid-off employees.
She furthermore said last week that she would protect workers if Musk follows through on a reported threat to sue workers who circulate secret data to the press.
