Published , by Morgan Shaver
Published , by Morgan Shaver
Following mass layoffs in late 2022, some former Twitter employees are finally set to receive severance benefits. Several shared screenshots and accounts from sources familiar claim severance payouts are finally moving forward after being promised by Elon Musk in November.
As a quick recap, after Musk acquired Twitter and “let the sink in” back in October, around three-fourths of the company’s staff of 7,500 were laid off. Later in November, Musk tweeted that employees targeted by these cuts would get “3 months of severance pay” however the follow-through on this promise has taken a bit longer than many had expected.
After several months of waiting, some of these ex-Twitter employees finally getting their severance pay. Fortune notes that according to a person familiar with the matter, “the severance agreements being distributed on Thursday provide for laid off employees in the US to receive one month of base pay as severance.”
Fortune goes on to write about how, due to the conditions of the federal WARN act requiring employers to give a minimum 60-day notice before mass layoffs, Twitter employees laid off in November “have been kept on the payroll and have received their regular salaries for the last 60 days.” As such, those employees had been kept on the company’s internal systems since November before officially being terminated as of January 4 per regulatory requirements.
“As many as 5,500 laid off Twitter employees are set to receive the official severance agreements, the source said,” Fortune reports.
While former Twitter employees finally receiving their severance pay serves as a spark of good news, it does come with a caveat attached as spotted in a draft agreement by Fortune. With this, former employees need to waive their rights to partake in the three pending class action lawsuits against Twitter as part of the severance terms of agreement. Additionally, in accepting their severance, former employees wouldn’t be allowed to divulge the terms of agreement or make negative statements about Twitter and its leadership team.
All in all, it’ll be interesting to see how former Twitter employees respond to the agreement terms attached to acquiring their overdue severance, and what happens at Twitter in the months ahead. For more on the matter, be sure to read through the full article from Fortune. Also take a moment to catch up with some of our previous coverage including Twitter being sued for nonpayment of rent at its San Francisco office, and the relaunch of Twitter Blue with gold, gray, and blue checkmarks.