Twitter at the Tribunal
Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter can most politely be described as tumultuous. Since the deal was finally completed at the end of October 2022, the tech company has been beset by technical troubles, political blowback, and users jumping ship.
In the UK, Twitter may also now be hit with legal trouble as 43 staffers who were recently let go prepare to take the company to an employment tribunal over a redundancy process that has been described as a “sham”. The workers go on to say that the way they have been treated is “unlawful, unfair and completely unacceptable”.
This story was originally reported by The Guardian who got access to a letter sent to Twitter by Winckworth Sherwood, a law firm involved in the issue. That letter points out that any tribunal is likely to take a dim view of Musk’s company given the sheer size and depth of resources available to them.
More specifically it is alleged that when the redundancy process began on 18th November, the employees were treated like they had already been dismissed in spite of an obligation to consult for at least 45 days. The workers were cut off from accessing internal systems and it became impossible for employee representatives at the company to help their colleagues in an effective manner.
In the letter from Winckworth Sherwood, it is alleged that this, alongside the failure to establish fair selection criteria for redundancy, represent breaches of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992.
From the stories that are emerging, it is clear that these issues are not limited to the UK. As Twitter cut half of its global workforce, there are numerous allegations of wrongdoing and failures by the tech giant to respond to formal grievances. In the U.S. alone, there are four class action lawsuits and 200 complaints from former Twitter employees.
One of the guiding principles of the tech industry is to ‘move fast and break things’. That might be a good way to get things done and stay ahead of the competition but it is no way to treat your staff.
This week on the podcast we look at the final case from 2022. Lawyers have a right to be paid for their services but in this case we examine what happens when the client becomes insolvent.
Episode link: http://uklawweekly.com/2022-uksc-35/
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