Ex-Twitter employees are suing Musk’s social media business saying the company not only failed to pay them promised severance, but then delayed their arbitration cases by failing to pay filing fees.
X, the social network formerly known as Twitter, is facing 2,200 arbitration cases that ex-employees filed after Elon Musk took over the company, slashed headcount, and made other sweeping changes there. The filing fees alone for that volume of cases could amount to $3.5 million.
The arbitration numbers were revealed in a new filing out Monday as part of a lawsuit in a Delaware district court. The case is Chris Woodfield v. Twitter, X Corp. and Elon Musk (No. 1:23-cv-780-CFC).
As CNBC has previously reported, many large corporations require workers to sign an arbitration agreement upon employment wherever it is legal to do so. This means to speak freely in court, where their speech can become part of a public record, workers would first need to get an exemption from a judge.
I have no sympathy. Companies that require class action waivers and mandatory arbitration clauses don't get to complain when thousands of people file arbitration claims simultaneously.
I've actually used arbitration to get my way in the past when I pointed out to the company that their filing fee for the arbitration was more expensive than just honoring their commitments, so even if I lost they'd be out several times what I wanted.
I get a kick out of every time a journalist feels they need to specify "formerly known as Twitter" because X is such a generic, indistinguishable brand.
I think it would be better to say "Twitter, currently branded as X" it is both useful and makes it look like it is just a cringy phase a teenager might go through temporarily. So you should just ignore the change and it will eventually resolve itself.
I continue to use “twitter” because Musk is a transphobe. If he feels obligated to deadname or misgender people, or defend those who do, I don’t see the need to follow what he wants to identify as, either.
It is Twitter, and I'll be Twitter until it's shutdown. Only morons who are into crypto ponzi schemes call it X unironically, expecting Elon to be their friend somehow
Oh he's been burning that reputation for a good while. I feel like when he tried to send a useless sub and called some guy a pedo was probably the largest turning point for many. Since that point he's been less and less heralded as he was before hand.
I think that's just more of a rollover from anything on the internet being labeled as 'tech', but like nowadays if the president sends a tweet its really not that notable of news, technologically. We could also start reporting every time a text is sent if we really wanted
Just more of the same Luddite shit, unfortunately. Seems nobody loves technology more than people who really fucking hate technology.
The Luddites were actually based as fuck.
And yes, a lot of exceptionally skilled engineers really fucking hate technology - a side effect of one's day to day being deeply entangled in technology.
X, the social network formerly known as Twitter, is facing 2,200 arbitration cases that ex-employees filed after Elon Musk took over the company, slashed headcount, and made other sweeping changes there.
Woodfield, a former senior staff network engineer who had worked at Twitter’s Seattle office, alleges in his suit that Musk’s Twitter (now known as X) had promised then failed to pay his severance, and later delayed alternative dispute resolution by failing to pay the necessary fees required for him to move ahead in the JAMS arbitration system.
The company’s lawyers have argued that it did not mandate employees to resolve any issues in arbitration, so it should not be on the hook for the larger portion of the filing fees.
As CNBC has previously reported, many large corporations require workers to sign an arbitration agreement upon employment wherever it is legal to do so.
Critics view arbitration as a secretive system that makes it harder for employees and prospective hires to find out how companies treat their workers, and what happened to people in previous related cases.
The Woodfield case against Musk’s X Corp. resembles another proposed class action filed in a San Francisco federal court.
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