2022 Twitter Layoffs Disproportionately Affected Female Employees, Class Action Alleges

New to ClassAction.org? Read our Newswire Disclaimer

Twitter faces a proposed class action lawsuit that alleges recent layoffs by the embattled social media platform and owner Elon Musk have disproportionately impacted women. 

The 14-page complaint out of California contends that Musk’s mass termination of workers in the “chaotic weeks” since taking ownership of Twitter discriminatorily harmed female employees “to a much greater extent than male employees—and to a highly statistically significant degree.” Out of the more than 2,600 people laid off by Twitter last month, more than half were female, the lawsuit claims. 

Want to stay in the loop on class actions that matter to you? Sign up for ClassAction.org’s free weekly newsletter here. 

The lawsuit states that the plaintiffs, who worked for Twitter until last month, are very concerned that employees set to receive severance agreements will be asked to sign away their rights without notice that they have legal claims of discrimination, or that litigation has already been filed on their behalf. The case looks to ensure that, unlike one of Musk’s other companies, Tesla, Twitter does not solicit releases of claims from any female employee without apprising them of the plaintiffs’ proposed class action and their right to pursue claims of sex discrimination under federal and California law. 

According to the case, Musk has taken heat for “sexist, demeaning, and hostile comments he has made against women” on Twitter. The lawsuit says that, in light of Musk’s history of “discriminatory animus against women,” it is no surprise that “significantly more” female employees were affected by the Twitter layoffs than men. 

The complaint, citing a spreadsheet showing which Twitter employees in the United States were retained and which were laid off on November 4, says that about 2,621 out of Twitter’s roughly 5,134 U.S. employees were notified that day that they were being laid off. Prior to those layoffs, Twitter employed around 2,234 female employees and 2,900 male employees in the U.S., according to the case. Of those workers, approximately 1,271 female workers and 1,350 male employees were notified that they were being laid off, the filing states. 

“Thus, 57% of female employees were laid off on November 4, 2022, while 47% of male employees were laid off,” the case summarizes, noting that 63 percent of female employees in engineering roles at Twitter, as opposed to 48 percent of men, were laid off on that day. 

In addition to laying off more women than men last month, Musk implemented a number of work policies that “would clearly have a disproportionate impact on women,” the case continues. 

“These policies included expectations that employees would work an unreasonable number of hours and that employees would be required to work out of physical offices (despite Twitter having freely allowed remote work throughout the pandemic and even before that).” 

The filing charges that Musk certainly would have known that the policy changes and outsized productivity expectations would disproportionately impact women, who are more often caregivers for children and other family members. The suit alleges Musk “used these demands to force more employees out of their jobs,” encouraging workers to leave if they didn’t agree to work under the new conditions. 

“This ultimatum was expected to, and did, result in further layoffs,” the lawsuit reads. “And it resulted in more women leaving the company than men. Indeed, approximately 36% of remaining women left the company after this ultimatum, while approximately 28% of men did.” 

Per the case, Musk “engaged in similar behavior” with respect to mass layoffs last summer when Tesla let go of a number of employees, allegedly without providing 60 days’ advanced notice as required by law. Former Tesla employees sued the electric vehicle maker, claiming that Tesla sought to obtain a full release of all federal and California legal claims in exchange for “small severance payments for less than the employees were legally entitled to,” the lawsuit states. 

The suit looks to cover all female Twitter employees in the United States whose jobs have been affected by the company’s layoffs, terminations and “constructive discharges” since Musk acquired Twitter. 

Get class action lawsuit news sent to your inbox – sign up for ClassAction.org’s free weekly newsletter here.