X to sit down to table with layoff claimants

Elon Musk's X Corp. has agreed to engage in settlement talks with approximately 2,000 employees who were laid off following the acquisition of Twitter in October 2022.

This development comes after ten months of relentless efforts by Attorney Shannon Liss-Riordan, representing the employees, to persuade Twitter to come to the negotiation table.

According to Bloomberg, private negotiations with a mediator are scheduled for December 1 and December 2. X Corp. is complying with a court order to participate in mediation, as confirmed by an anonymous source familiar with the matter.

Previously, Shannon Liss-Riordan has shared this about the case on X:

Success! #Twitter can't force employees into consolidated discovery for arbitrations (which would reduce its work substantially and limit the evidence we can get) after compelling our nearly 2,000 clients to arbitrate their claims individually. pic.twitter.com/cbf1o7EuV6

— Shannon Liss-Riordan (@SLissRiordan) June 14, 2023

Employees demand arbitration costs and fee-sharing

In a court filing dated August 28, an attorney for X Corp. revealed that Twitter had received more than 2,200 individual demands for arbitration. The sheer volume of cases could potentially lead to filing fees totaling $3.5 million. X Corp. has been attempting to share the arbitration costs equally, especially in jurisdictions where fee-sharing is legally permitted.

This situation stems from a class action filed in November 2022, alleging that Twitter, now known as "X," violated federal and California Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Acts by not providing the required notice and severance to laid-off employees.

In January 2023, a federal judge compelled plaintiffs into arbitration due to their failure to opt out of Twitter's arbitration agreement. However, Liss-Riordan has continued to file numerous arbitrations on behalf of individual ex-Twitter employees. Some of these employees claim that Musk's company has not paid outstanding bills.

Read also: Even the police are against Twitter rebranding.

A step towards resolution

The settlement talks between X Corp. and the approximately 2,000 employees represent a significant step towards resolving the disputes arising from the layoffs.

If successful, this mediated resolution could pave the way for a more amicable and efficient settlement process in similar cases in the future.

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