Two Women Sue Twitter For Discrimination In Layoffs

Shannon LIss-Riordan (left), the plaintiff's attorney, (photo: twitter @BTU66)

JAKARTA - Twitter Inc has received a lawsuit from the residual layoffs of half of its workforce. This time the lawsuit accused social media companies of disproportionately targeting female employees for layoffs.

A class action lawsuit filed Wednesday evening December 7 in San Francisco federal court said that after Twitter was taken over by Elon Musk, the world's richest man, Twitter laid off 57% of its female workers compared to just 47% of men.

Twitter dismissed about 3,700 employees in early November as a cost cut step by Musk, and hundreds more later resigned.

Gender gaps are more striking for roles and engineering work, where 63% of women have lost their jobs compared to 48% of men, according to the new lawsuit.

.@elonmusk's behavior since he took over @Twitter a couple of weeks ago has been nothing short of appalling. I have never seen anything like this in my nearly quarter century representing workers. https://t.co/MRVzcepZvN

— Shannon Liss-Riordan (@SLissRiordan) November 17, 2022

A lawsuit filed by two women who were dismissed by Twitter last month accused the company of violating federal and California laws, which prohibits sex discrimination in the workplace.

Twitter itself did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the media.

Shannon LIss-Riordan, the plaintiff's attorney, said women "had targets on their backs" once Musk acquired the company, regardless of their talents and contributions.

LIss-Riordan represented Twitter employees and former employees in three other pending lawsuits filed in the same court since last month.

The cases included various claims, including that Twitter dismissed employees and contractors without prior notice as required by law and failed to pay the promised severance pay. In addition, there is another lawsuit that Musk forced out workers with disabilities by refusing to allow remote work and asking employees to work harder."

According to a Reuters report, at least three workers separately have filed a complaint against Twitter to the US National Labor Relations Council claiming that they face retaliation for supporting better working conditions.

Twitter denies making a mistake in a lawsuit involving prior notifications, and has not responded to other complaints.