Tech giant X is facing a class action lawsuit over allegations it engaged in age discrimination during large-scale lay-offs following Elon Musk’s acquisition of the company.
A federal judge in San Francisco ruled late last week that the near-150 Twitter (now known as X) workers aged over 50 years old who were let go from the company in late 2022 can form a group to pursue a class action against the Musk-run firm.
This is the first hurdle that a class action suit must pass, with eligible former-X employees to now be told that they are able to join the case.
The case was brought by an employee of Twitter, John Zeman, who worked in the company’s communications department.
He is arguing that as part of the mass firings in late 2022, 60 per cent of employees aged 50 or older were laid off, and nearly three-quarters of those aged over 60.
In comparison, 54 per cent of employees younger than 50 were sacked, the plaintiff argued.
X has denied that it engaged in age discrimination, saying that everyone in Zeman’s communications team was fired after Musk took over the company, regardless of how old they were.
About 150 Twitter employees aged over 50 were let go as part of these mass lay-offs, and they are now eligible to be class action members.
“Plaintiff has shown beyond mere speculation that Twitter may have discriminated against older employees in the 4 November 2022 [lay-offs], which constitutes a single decision that affected all members of the proposed class,” US District Judge Susan Illston said in the ruling.
“The court further finds that the extent to which members of the proposed action will rely on common evidence to prove the alleged discrimination weighs in favour of a collective action here.”
Zeman’s lawyers are now allowed to inform other potential class action members that they are eligible to join the case.
‘Extremely hurried’ lay-offs
Musk officially acquired Twitter in late 2022, and quickly approved a plan to terminate the employment of 3,789 people in early November, amounting to more than half of its workforce.
The plaintiff argued that these decisions were made under “extremely hurried circumstances, with little if any regard given to employees’ job performance, qualification, experience and abilities”.
“The majority of initial layoff decisions were made quickly by a small group of managers, under close supervision of Musk,” they said.
Their case also referred to comments made by Musk at the time that they allege were “ageist”.
X’s legal troubles
X is facing about a dozen lawsuits in relation to the mass layoffs of late 2022, including ones arguing the required advanced notice was not provided, that women were specifically targeted, and that workers with a disability were discriminated against due to return-to-office mandates.
The lawyer representing Zeman, Shannon Liss-Riordan, is also acting against X in a number of these cases.
“Our cases are moving forward and we feel good about them,” Liss-Riordan said.
“We’ve developed strong evidence of Elon Musk’s multiple legal violations against employees when he acquired Twitter.”
It comes after an Ireland-based Twitter employee was last month awarded nearly $1 million after he was unfairly dismissed for not responding to an email from Musk that called on workers to be “extremely hardcore”.
Age discrimination is rife across the tech sector.
A 2020 report found that more than a third of all IT workers had suffered discrimination in some form, with age discrimination topping the list.
According to the report, more than 20 per cent of those surveyed aged over 55 had experienced discrimination at work.
A World Health Organisation report also found that one in two people are ageist, and that the Australian economy would grow by $62 billion annually if just 5 per cent more people aged over 55 were employed.
In July an older worker was awarded $6 million for unfair dismissal after his younger boss labelled him an “old fossil”.
The worker was let go from his job 18 months after he was told he was an “old fossil who doesn’t know how to manage millennials” in a meeting that was attended by other executives.
