Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

On the morning of January 17, Beijing time, it was reported that five fired Twitter employees were forced to give up their class action against the company, and the judge asked them to submit personal claims for arbitration.

On Friday, US District Judge James Donato ruled in Twitter's favor, saying that the employment contracts of the former employees included a signed arbitration agreement, which stated that employees would bring legal disputes against the company through arbitration rather than court, including class action immunity.

"Twitter provides copies of signed agreements, which are clear and clear," Donato wrote in the ruling.

Since Elon Musk took over Twitter at the end of October, the company has laid off thousands of employees. Mr Musk has said the former employees will receive three months' severance pay. Twitter told employees several times before the acquisition that even under the billionaire's management, employees would still receive at least as much severance pay as the company had promised, including two months of severance pay, according to the lawsuit.

But many laid-off employees don't get that much. All they get is a month's severance pay. The class action lawsuit alleges that Twitter is in breach of contract, claiming that Twitter should pay two months of promised severance pay to laid-off employees, as well as two months of non-work pay they have received, as Twitter strives to avoid violating the WARN law, which requires the company to give notice of mass layoffs.

The dispute resolution agreement provided to workers along with the employment contract stipulates that disputes relating to dismissal must be "resolved only by the arbitrator through final and binding arbitration, not by court or jury trial".

The agreement added: "you and the company agree to bring arbitration only on an individual basis, not on a collective basis or on the basis of a representative of the private attorney general."

The dispute settlement agreement states that "arbitration is not a mandatory condition for employees to work in the company" and that employees can sign a separate form to opt out. Donato further said, however, that copies of dispute resolution agreements from 2017 to 2021 showed that they were signed by five plaintiffs and that "the plaintiffs did not opt out."

The first five plaintiffs who filed the lawsuit on November 3 were "asked to conduct individual arbitration," Donato said.

Donato said the other three plaintiffs who joined the complaint on December 9 said they had not signed the arbitration agreement, adding that they were therefore not affected by Friday's ruling and that he would decide how to deal with their complaint at a later date.

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