Elon Musk's Twitter job cuts trivialize labor law, says lawyer fighting for laid-off workers

Layoffs at Twitter started on Thursday evening as part of a series of sweeping changes made during billionaire Elon Musk's first week at the helm of the social media platform. 

"In an effort to place Twitter on a healthy path, we will go through the difficult process of reducing our global workforce on Friday," an email to Twitter staff read, according to the Washington Post. "We recognize that this will impact a number of individuals who have made valuable contributions to Twitter, but this action is unfortunately necessary to ensure the company’s success moving forward."

The Post reported that the cuts impact roughly 50% of Twitter's workforce.

Along with the job cuts, Musk has reportedly removed Twitter's "days of rest" perk from employee calendars and plans to cancel its remote work policy — with some exceptions — and have staff return to the office full-time, according to Bloomberg.  

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A class-action lawsuit has been filed against Twitter on behalf of workers claiming the company’s layoffs violate a federal law requiring 60 days of advanced notice for employees.

One worker in the lawsuit was let go Tuesday and three others were locked out of their accounts Thursday "which they understood to signal that they were being laid off." The court document asserted Musk "recently engaged in mass layoffs" at Tesla without notice and then attempted to obtain releases from laid off employees "without informing them of their rights under the federal or California WARN Acts."

"Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, has made clear that he believes complying with federal labor laws is ‘trivial’," Shannon Liss-Riordan, an attorney representing the Twitter workers, told FOX Business in a statement.

She said the complaint was filed to ensure Twitter and Musk are held accountable to federal labor laws and that the company's employees understand their rights.

"Employees should be very careful about signing away their legal protections under pressure from Musk," Liss-Riordan added. "We are prepared to file claims on behalf of Twitter employees who get laid off without proper notice or severance or the compensation protections that were included in the sale contract for Musk's purchase of Twitter.  We are also investigating how Twitter chose employees for layoff and whether any discrimination or retaliation was involved."

Representatives for Musk and Twitter did not return FOX Business' request for comment. 

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The round of layoffs follows a mass exodus of Twitter executives since Musk took over.

Following the closing of his $44 billion acquisition on Oct. 27, Musk fired Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal and Vijaya Gadde, the company's head of legal, policy and trust. General counsel Sean Edgett also confirmed on Twitter that he is no longer with the company after several outlets reported he was included in the firings.

In addition, several other Twitter executives have confirmed they are no longer with the company, including Twitter's Chief Customer Officer Sarah Personette, Chief People and Diversity Officer Dalana Brand and Nick Caldwell, the general manager for core technologies. 

Musk has also dissolved Twitter's board, a change he said is "just temporary." Its members included Agrawal and Chair Bret Taylor.

Individuals helping Musk reshape Twitter include Jared Birchall, the head of Musk's family office; his lawyer Alex Spiro; angel investor Jason Calacanis; PayPal's founding chief operating officer and venture capitalist David Sacks; Twitter's head of safety and integrity Yoel Roth; and Sriram Krishnan, a former Twitter executive and general partner at venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.