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Twitter is facing new legal fallout from mass layoffs under Elon Musk’s management, including complaints from some workers that severance payments are less than promised and from other employees that the company retaliated against them for exercising protected labour rights. The latest legal actions follow a class-action lawsuit filed when the layoffs first began in early November which accused the company of failing to give enough notice to hundreds of employees facing termination.

A Los Angeles lawyer on Monday said she has filed individual arbitration claims on behalf of three employees who claim the company hasn’t committed to paying them the severance they were promised before Musk acquired it. Lisa Bloom, the lawyer for the employees, said she’s prepared to bring hundreds more such complaints on behalf of Twitter employees and contractors. Unlike lawsuits that are filed and fought over publicly, arbitrations are handled in a closed-door process.

The company was also named in two complaints to the National Labour Relations Board.

In one labour board case, Twitter is accused of terminating an employees in retaliation for an unsuccessful effort with other workers to organize a strike. The strike was planned for November 17, 2022 but never took place, according to the December 1 complaint, because employees were deterred by an email sent by Musk telling them to commit to being “extremely hardcore” if they wanted to keep their jobs.  

Another employee complained to the labour board of being placed on administrative leave in retaliation for participating in a lawsuit and for suggesting to coworkers that they protest the company’s return-to-office policy.

Twitter didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Both of the labour board complaints were filed by attorney Shannon Liss-Riordan, who has filed at least one other complaint with the agency last month and also is spearheading the class action against Twitter in court. A hearing in that case in set for Thursday in San Francisco federal court.

 – Bloomberg