Two women who lost their jobs at Twitter when billionaire Elon Musk took office are suing the company in federal court, alleging that abrupt mass layoffs last month disproportionately affected female employees. The discrimination lawsuit is the latest in a series of legal challenges over Musk's annihilation of Twitter's workforce through layoffs and mass layoffs.
Days after the then-world's richest man bought the social media platform for $44 billion, the company told nearly half of its employees on Nov. months. The lawsuit filed in federal court in San Francisco this week alleges that 57% of female employees were fired, compared with less than half of men, despite the fact that Twitter employed more men overall before the layoffs.
The cuts continued through November when Musk fired engineers who questioned or criticized him and gave all remaining employees the option of either resigning with severance pay or signing a form promising "extremely hard" dedication. to the new Twitter address. Many more lost their jobs after refusing to make the pledge.
San Francisco-based Twitter began the year with about 7,500 employees worldwide, according to a filing with stock regulators. Now that it's a private company, it hasn't disclosed how many remain. Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Associated Press. The lawsuit filed Wednesday night by former employees Carolina Bernal Strifling and Willow Wren Turkal on behalf of workers in similar situations claims that 57% of female employees were fired on November 4, compared to 47% of male employees. .
The gap is even larger for women in engineering-related roles: 63% were fired, compared to 48% of men in engineering roles, according to a lawsuit filed by prominent Boston workers' rights attorney. , Shannon Liss-Riordan. “The mass layoff of employees at Twitter has affected female employees more than male employees and to a statistically significant degree,” the attorney wrote. “In addition, Elon Musk has made a number of publicly discriminatory comments about women, further confirming that the biggest impact of the layoff on female employees was due to discrimination.”
