Twitter Africa workers left in limbo after layoffs under Elon Musk's leadership
Former employees of Twitter's Accra office in Africa claim they have been "ghosted" by the company and have yet to receive their severance pay, as reported by CNN on Monday.
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The delayed payments add to Twitter's ongoing personnel challenges following Elon Musk's takeover and the intensifying competition with Meta's Threads.
According to CNN, terminated workers from Twitter's office in Accra, Ghana, have been waiting for their severance pay for over seven months since they were let go as part of Musk's significant staff reduction. The office in Accra, which opened in November, saw nearly all its staff, around a dozen employees, laid off just four days after its inauguration. Some of the affected workers had relocated to Ghana for the job and relied on it to maintain their legal status in the country.
Former employees, speaking anonymously due to non-disclosure agreements, revealed that they had accepted Twitter's offer of three months' severance pay, as well as legal and repatriation costs for foreign staff. However, they claimed that the company was unresponsive and "ghosted" them until they eventually agreed to the terms, which were reportedly less favourable than what workers elsewhere were offered.
Carla Olympio, an attorney representing the former employees, expressed frustration over the lack of progress since the settlement was agreed upon. She stated that Twitter never finalized the offer and has remained silent since May.
The Ministry of Employment and Labor Relations in Ghana has launched an investigation into the claims, and Twitter's response to Forbes' request for comment was an automatic poop emoji.
Background
After controversially acquiring Twitter for $44 billion in 2022, Musk swiftly initiated significant staff cuts, reducing the headcount from 8,000 to around 1,500, an 80% reduction. Musk justified the cuts as a necessity to reduce costs. However, the changes made by Musk, including alterations to the verification system, the introduction of a paid version of the platform, and overhauling content moderation policies, faced criticism. Concerns arose among regulators and users about Twitter's ability to maintain the platform's operations and fulfil its legal obligations. Advertisers reportedly abandoned the platform, leading to a decline in ad revenue, while users migrated to emerging rival Threads, tightly linked to Meta's Instagram. Threads quickly amassed over 100 million users in less than a week, posing a significant threat to Twitter.
Musk and Twitter are facing legal action over the mass layoffs, including allegations of discrimination and the refusal to pay bonuses and severance. A former head of Twitter's employee benefits program, Courtney McMillian, filed a class-action lawsuit last week, claiming that the company failed to pay at least $500 million in pledged severance as per a policy established in 2019. The lawsuit contends that many Twitter employees either received significantly less than agreed upon or received nothing at all.
