Ex-Employee Files Lawsuit against Twitter for Targeting Women for Layoffs

Social networking service company Twitter has been slammed with another lawsuit claiming it disproportionately targeted women in its recent layoff. Last month, there was a massive cut in the company’s workforce, affecting about half of the entire force. Twitter has dismissed thousands of its staff, including contract employees since Elon Musk took over.

Twitter Former Workers Say Company Targeted Women for Layoffs

The proposed class action was filed by two former Twitter employees, Carolina Bernal Strifling and Willow Wren Turkal, on behalf of themselves and “other female Twitter employees across the country.” The two employees were victims of the massive layoff last month. At the time, Twitter fired 3,700 employees in early November, and hundreds voluntarily resigned after Musk became the new owner. According to the Wednesday filing in San Francisco federal court, the company, under the new leadership, has laid off 57% of female workers compared to 47% of men. The lawsuit stated that the workforce cut impacted more female workers than their male counterparts.

According to the lawsuit, the gender disparity was more targeted at engineering roles. They claimed that around 63% of women in the engineering field at Twitter lost their jobs while only 48% of men were affected. The women are accusing the social networking company of violating federal and California laws that prohibit workplace sex discrimination. In addition to the percentage difference, the lawsuit added that the dissimilarity is “extremely statistically significant.”

“Moreover, Elon Musk has made a number of publicly discriminatory remarks about women, further confirming that the mass termination’s greater impact on female employees resulted from discrimination.”

Shannon Liss-Riordan, the plaintiff’s lawyer, said women at Twitter had “targets on their backs” as soon as Musk became the CEO. The lawyer, who is known for class action suits against popular companies like Starbucks and Uber, said Twitter was targeting women in the organization despite their contributions to the company.

Twitter’s Legal Cases

The case of gender imbalance in workforce cuts at Twitter is the latest in a string of legal actions against the company. Other ex-employees and contractors have taken the company to court over different issues. One of the employees dismissed in December said that Musk forced out disabled staff. The employee said the CEO’s class for work to be “extremely hardcore” and “work long hours at high intensity” compelled workers with disabilities to leave the company since they could no longer work remotely.

Other lawsuits against Twitter claimed that the dismissed workers did not receive the severance packages as promised. Some also claimed they did not get the legally required advance notice before their dismissal.