Twitter’s Offices Temporarily Closed, Employees Launch Lawsuit as Layoffs Set to Begin: Report

A class-action lawsuit was filed against Twitter Thursday over its plan to cut about 50% of its workforce, with employees saying the company violated federal and state law by not giving them enough notice of the layoffs. 

Twitter’s offices were temporarily closed Friday, Reuters reported. New CEO Elon Musk is expected to slash about 3,700 jobs—around 50% of Twitter’s workforce—with employees watching their emails for news of their fate, according to Bloomberg. Musk also plans to terminate the company’s work-from-anywhere policy.

The social media company, which has about 7,500 employees, sent a message to staff Thursday saying they be notified by 9 a.m. on Friday whether they would be terminated.

Federal law limits large companies from making major layoffs without at least 60 days of advance notice.

"We filed this lawsuit tonight in an attempt the make sure that employees are aware that they should not sign away their rights and that they have an avenue for pursuing their rights,” attorney Shannon Liss-Riordan, who filed Thursday’s complaint, told Bloomberg in an interview.

The hashtag #TwitterLayoffs was trending Friday, with employees reporting whether they had been let go or not.

The drama over Musk’s $44 billion deal includes questions over whether the mercurial tycoon will loosen restrictions on hate speech and misinformation at a time of increasing threats against political leaders, highlighted by the attack on Paul Pelosi, husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. This week Musk met with civil rights groups to discuss moderating content on Twitter, which is important to advertisers.