New York CNN —
Two months after Elon Musk fired half of Twitter’s workforce, some affected employees say they have yet to receive a formal severance offer or a separation agreement.
A former Twitter employee told CNN they expected to have some information from the company by Wednesday, the final official employment date for many workers affected by Musk’s first wave of layoffs, based on state and federal notice periods.
However, early Thursday the former employee said he had not yet received any documents related to a termination agreement or offer. Other fired employees tweeted similar remarks this week, including one who said they “have never seen a severance letter, let alone been offered a severance payment.”
A spokeswoman for Shannon Liss-Riordan, the attorney representing hundreds of former Twitter employees, confirmed her clients, who were affected by Twitter’s layoffs in early November, had not received any severance information as of Thursday. “There was some expectation that they would be sent out yesterday, but we didn’t see that,” Kevin Ready, the spokesman, said of the severance agreements.
“Yesterday was the official cutoff date for thousands of Twitter workers, and after months of chaos and uncertainty created by Elon Musk, these workers are left on their own,” Liss-Riordan said in a statement Thursday.
Employee concerns come as Musk scrambles to cut costs at the company he bought for $44 billion in October, including a significant amount of debt. After Musk laid off half of the company in early November, Musk continued to downsize and oust more employees, including requiring anyone who remained to sign a pledge of commitment to “hardcore” work obliged.
The company was recently sued by a commercial landlord and a private airline who accused Twitter of failing to pay bills. And the New York Times reported last month that Twitter was considering denying laid-off employees their severance pay as a cost-cutting measure, citing people familiar with the discussions at the company’s top management, adding to the sense of insecurity for affected workers.
Twitter, which downsized much of its public relations department as part of the layoffs, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on claims that it had not offered or paid compensation. At the time of the Musk firings promised that “every departer was offered 3 months’ severance pay,” a period that appears to include the 60-day notice Twitter was required to provide.
A report by Fortune on Thursday afternoon, citing an unnamed source familiar with the situation and screenshots viewed by the publication, said Twitter planned to send termination agreements to affected employees on Thursday, though it was unclear when exactly they would would go out. The severance agreements should provide laid-off US employees with a monthly base salary and include a provision requiring employees to refrain from participating in pending lawsuits against the company, the report said.
Liss-Riordan has filed four proposed class-action lawsuits against Twitter on behalf of employees affected by layoffs, with allegations including that Twitter backed down on promises to allow remote work and consistent severance pay, and complaints related to alleged disability and gender discrimination . She has also filed three lawsuits against Twitter with the National Labor Relations Board on behalf of former employees. Liss-Riordan said Thursday that she has filed another 100 arbitration claims against Twitter on behalf of former employees, after initially filing 100 last month.
Last month, employees represented by Liss-Riordan scored an early victory in court when a judge ordered Twitter to notify fired employees of pending court cases before requiring them to sign separation agreements that include a release from legal claims.