A former employee of Twitter is suing the social media company and its owner for $500 million, claiming laid-off workers were not paid all their severance.
The complaint was filed on behalf of Courtney McMillian who was among those who were fired when Elon Musk conducted mass layoffs shortly after buying Twitter last year, CNN reported.
It was filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Variety reported.
McMillian had been an employee of Twitter’s human resources department from August 2020 until Jan. 4.
The severance package used the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, according to the lawsuit, Variety reported.
The lawsuit says that the company promised senior employees six months of base pay plus one week for every year they worked for Twitter as part of a severance package.
But in reality, they only got three months of pay including what was state and federally-mandated, CNN reported.
“Musk initially represented to employees that under his leadership Twitter would continue to abide by the severance plan,” the law firm said in a statement to Variety. “He apparently made these promises knowing that they were necessary to prevent mass resignations that would have threatened the viability of the merger and the vitality of Twitter itself.”
Musk got rid of about 80% of the company after he took over Twitter.
In addition to the damages of at least $500 million, the suit is also asking Musk and Twitter “to abide by all terms of the severance plan by paying all terminated employees what they are owed,” Variety reported.
When asked for comment via email, Twitter responded with an automated message containing a poop emoji, CNN reported.
