Elon Blinks

After stiffing employees on their contractually required severance for months, and after months of  stonewalling the attorneys who are representing these employees, the criminal enterprise formerly known as Twitter™ has finally agreed to talk to the lawyers.

They were required to file for arbitration for each case, and pay the arbitration fees, which with over 2,000 plaintiffs will amount to over $3½ million.

Here's hoping that take him to the cleaners.

Elon Musk's X Corp. has reportedly agreed to settlement talks on arbitration claims from about 2,000 employees laid off after Musk purchased Twitter in October 2022.

"After 10 months of pressing them in every direction we have succeeded in getting Twitter to the table," attorney Shannon Liss-Riordan wrote in a memo to clients that was quoted in a Bloomberg article today. "Twitter wants to mediate with us in a global attempt to settle all claims we have filed."

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The agreement to mediate comes a few months after Twitter allegedly refused to pay for arbitration costs despite forcing ex-employees to pursue arbitration instead of lawsuits. Liss-Riordan has filed several class actions on behalf of former Twitter employees, and one on behalf of vendors who say Musk has refused to pay the company's bills.

A class action filed in November 2022 alleged that Twitter (which was recently renamed "X") violated the federal and California Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Acts. The WARN laws require 60 days' advance written notice before a mass layoff. The lawsuit sought financial damages, alleging that laid-off employees weren't given severance or the required notice.

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But while Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Services rules require the employer to pay arbitration fees, Musk's company on June 2 "request[ed] that all arbitration fees be split equally among the parties," the lawsuit said. On June 28, Twitter sent another letter stating that "Twitter would refuse to proceed with arbitrations in most states outside California," and "attached a list of 891 arbitrations in which it was refusing to proceed," the lawsuit said.

Allegations against X include "failing to pay laid-off employees promised severance payments, discriminating against employees on the basis of sex, race, age, and disability, failing to pay promised bonuses, violating the WARN Act (Family and Medical Leave Act) and FMLA, and other violations," the lawsuit said.

I really hope that Musk does not skate on this.