Twitter playing ‘stupid game’ to stall ex-workers’ legal claims: lawyer
Feb 3 (Reuters) – Twitter Inc (TWTR.MX) is refusing to arbitrate authorized promises by hundreds of ex-workers who simply cannot develop copies of employment contracts they signed, right after the firm productively moved to have their course motion claims despatched to arbitration, according to a court submitting.
Shannon Liss-Riordan, a attorney for more than 1,000 people today who had been laid off or fired by Twitter final 12 months, said she could be forced to bring hundreds of statements into courtroom just to have Twitter generate copies of the agreements when it moves to ship them to arbitration.
Liss-Riordan and Twitter manufactured a joint filing in San Francisco federal court on Thursday to update the courtroom forward of a listening to scheduled for Feb. 9.
The personnel claim Twitter refused to pay promised severance or give them the progress observe of mass layoffs required by law, which the company denies.
A federal choose very last thirty day period mentioned several of the course motion plaintiffs have been required to arbitrate their promises. Many others did not indicator arbitration agreements, so the scenario has remained in court.
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In an job interview on Friday, Liss-Riordan mentioned Twitter is likely seeking to delay the arbitration scenarios in hopes that some personnel fall their claims.
“This is just a stupid activity that Twitter is making an attempt to enjoy,” she reported. “No one particular is giving up.”
Twitter did not answer to a ask for for comment. In Thursday’s filing, the firm’s lawyers accused Liss-Riordan of trying to shortcut the arbitration approach by not producing all of the agreements.
“It seems evident that Plaintiffs’ counsel rushed to submit more than 1,000 incomplete and inadequate needs for arbitration for the sole goal of leveraging massive preliminary situation administration expenses in opposition to Twitter,” they wrote.
The company also claimed it was not obligated to give employees any severance and the shell out it did give to departing personnel “was generous based on Twitter’s economic situation.”
So-identified as “mass arbitrations,” exactly where hundreds or countless numbers of individuals file comparable person claims, can price businesses tens of millions of bucks in service fees on your own. Plaintiffs’ attorneys have increasingly employed the tactic to push again from organizations that demand personnel or buyers to indication arbitration agreements.
Liss-Riordan has filed 3 other lawsuits against Twitter stemming from the layoffs, such as statements that the company specific woman employees and forced out staff with disabilities. The business has moved to dismiss these statements.
The situation is Cornet v. Twitter Inc, U.S. District Court docket for the Northern District of California, No. 3:22-cv-06857.
For the plaintiffs: Shannon Liss-Riordan of Lichten & Liss-Riordan.
For Twitter: Brian Berry of Morgan Lewis & Bockius.
Reporting by Daniel Wiessner in Albany, New York, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi
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