Musk's first act as Twitter boss isn't social

Twitter is being sued after new owner Elon Musk announced plans to eliminate 3,700 jobs in an effort to make Twitter more profitable. The class-action lawsuit from former employees alleges that they were not given enough notice of their terminations, with some simply being locked out of their work accounts as an indication that they no longer had a job.

The action is brought under the California Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) which requires employers who are planning a ‘mass layoff’ (50 or more jobs in a 30-day period) to provide those workers and local government officials with at least 60 days’ notice. If they don’t, the employer can be liable to pay back pay and benefits to the affected employee(s) for the period of the violation.

In the UK, if an employer is proposing to make 20 or more employees redundant in any 90-day period, it must inform and consult with appropriate representatives (which might be trade union representatives or employee representatives) and notify the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy at least 30 days before the first dismissal. In cases where an employer proposes to make 100 or more employees redundant, this increases to 45 days. This is called ‘collective consultation’.

The consultation process must focus on avoiding dismissals, reducing the number of employees who need to be dismissed, and mitigating the consequences of dismissal. Decisions should not be predetermined before this process takes place and there must be enough time given to the appropriate representatives to respond and contribute to the employer’s proposals. Collective consultation does not replace the obligation to consult individually with affected employees and a fair individual consultation process must also be carried out in order to avoid unfair dismissal claims.

The consequences of failing to comply with these requirements depend on the failure(s) themselves, but in some cases, can include criminal liability.

If you require any advice on the redundancy process, including how collective and individual consultation processes are managed, please contact our employment team.