They could still make changes to their complaint and submit it again.
Since the very beginning of Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter, the social media site that was formerly known as Twitter has been at the heart of many legal challenges. There is a lawsuit that pertains to the more than 6,000 employees that were terminated by Musk after he acquired the company, and it alleges that he did not pay them their full severance pay. Musk was successful in gaining the support of his former employees yesterday.
The lawsuit in question is a class-action lawsuit that was submitted by Courtney McMillian, who had formerly worked at Twitter. It was asserted in the case that the Twitter Severance Plan was obligated to pay workers who had been laid off three months’ worth of pay in accordance with the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). The amount they received was less than that, and they demanded unpaid severance pay of $500 million. On the other hand, on Tuesday, the United States District Judge Trina Thompson in the Northern District of California granted Musk’s move to dismiss the class-action complaint.
Judge Thompson came to the conclusion that the Twitter severance plan did not meet the requirements of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) since the company had been informed about a separate payout scheme prior to the layoffs. Instead, she decided to dismiss the case, with the decision that the severance scheme that was implemented after Musk’s takeover was the one that applied to these former employees, rather than the one that the plaintiffs were anticipating would be implemented in 2019.
Despite the fact that this verdict represents a setback for the thousands of Twitter employees who were terminated, there remain opportunities in the future for them to receive higher rewards. According to the decision issued by Thompson, the plaintiffs have the ability to modify their complaint to include non-ERISA issues. Thompson has stated that “this Court will consider issuing an Order finding this case related to one of the cases currently pending” against X Corporation/Twitter in the event that they comply with the request. There are still lawsuits being filed on behalf of former senior brass at Twitter. One of these claims is demanding a severance payment of $128 million that has not been paid, and another litigation is attempting to recover almost $1 million in legal fees that have not been paid.