Twitter employees fired by Elon Musk 7 months ago have not received severance pay, say company ghosted them

By Divyanshi SharmaElon Musk bought Twitter in October 2022 and employees, as well as users, of the micro-blogging platform went through major changes the moment the new boss took charge. One of the first things that Musk did was fire Twitter’s top executives, including the then-CEO Parag Agrawal. Subsequently, Musk fired thousands of Twitter employees across the globe. Those employees that were left at the organisation had to commit to building Musk’s Twitter 2.0 under tough working conditions and were asked to return to work from offices as well.

In the last couple of months, several ex-Twitter employees have spoken up about the company and many have complained that they still have not received their promised severance pay. Those who did get theirs were also reportedly unhappy with it. And now, as per a report in CNN, former Twitter Africa employees who were laid off by Elon Musk about seven months ago have come forward and revealed that they haven’t yet received their severance pay. They also added that they agreed to settle for a severance package that was lesser than their counterparts in other locations.

Twitter Africa employees still waiting on severance pay

The report further adds that the ex-employees, based in Accra, Ghana, accepted Twitter’s offer to pay them three months worth of severance, repatriation costs, and legal expenses back in late May. However, they haven’t received the money yet and there has been no communication on the same from Twitter as well.

A former Twitter employee based in Africa told CNN, “They (Twitter) literally ghosted us.”

“Although Twitter has eventually settled former staff in other locations, Africa staff have still been left in the lurch despite us eventually agreeing to specific negotiated terms,” the report quotes an employee.

In addition to this, the severance package, which was reluctantly accepted by the employees, was lower than what their counterparts in other locations received.

Another employee revealed that Twitter was unresponsive until they agreed to the terms out of frustration and exhaustion.

“Twitter was non-responsive until we agreed to the three months because we were all so stressed and exhausted and tired of the uncertainty, reluctant to take on the extra burdens of a court case so we felt we had no choice but to settle,” he told CNN.

The former employees requested anonymity because they were asked to sign non-disclosure agreements as part of their exit terms.

The lawyer representing the employees, Carla Olympio, said that Twitter and its lawyers had not communicated with the employees since May, when the settlement regarding severance had been reached.

The report also said that Ghana’s Ministry of Employment and Labor Relations is ‘investigating the claims’.

Ex-Twitter engineer calls tech job market hot garbage

In March this year, a Twitter engineer, who was fired by Elon Musk, said that the tech job market is ‘hot garbage’ right now and that he has faced a wave of rejections after he lost his job.

“The market is hot garbage right now,” the former Twitter employee told CNN and added, “I was sitting down earlier this week after a wave of rejections and I was kind of like, maybe I should go be a firefighter or something because the tech jobs are just not happening.”