Former Twitter workers in the UK have sought legal advice over their recent redundancies, which they have described as a ‘sham’.
The Guardian newspaper has reported that the 43 workers feel they were subject to “unlawful, unfair and completely unacceptable” treatment as they were made redundant.
A flawed consultation period was at the centre of the complaints made to law firm Winckworth Sherwood, which has raised the prospect of cases going to the employment tribunal.
Redundancy
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A letter, seen by the Guardian, sent to Twitter managers stated: “We consider that an employment tribunal will take an extremely dim view of the company’s failings to date, not least having regard to its size, resources and access to legal advice.”
The former employees were treated as if they had already been dismissed when hearing of their redundancy on 18 November 2022, the law firm stated, with the legal obligation to consult for 45 days being ignored.
The letter alleges that staff were immediately cut off from internal Twitter systems, which effectively suspended them from their jobs when Twitter had no contractual right to do so. This also had the effect of making it impossible for employee representatives to assist their colleagues effectively.
The law firm said it believed an employment tribunal judge would reach the same conclusion, particularly as there had been, the workers allege, a failure to establish fair selection criteria for redundancy. There was also doubt it said, whether the redundancies were genuine given the fact Twitter was still flagging up job opportunities in London on its corporate website.
The letter referred to the stress, anxiety and distress caused to those affected by the redundancy decision.
On taking over Twitter, Elon Musk, also the new chief executive of firm, has made about 3,700 people, half of its employees, redundant.
This led in the US to four class action lawsuits and 200 legal complaints, from affected workers.
HR specialist Sue Allen wrote in December in a blog that Twitter’s actions in the UK, as they stood, could be challenged. She wrote: “While most of Twitter’s employees are based in California, there are UK employees based in Birmingham, London and Manchester. As it stands, Twitter has failed to comply with its duty to collectively consult with its employees in the UK. This move is considered to be procedurally unfair, which could give rise to claims of unfair dismissal from its UK employees.”
Allen added that Twitter still needed to demonstrate why the sudden dismissals were necessary. “While Musk’s financial reasons may be considered ‘reasonable’, the vagueness of the reasons behind choosing not to consult with employees in advance may still land Musk in hot water with regards to unfair dismissal claims.”
Philip Paget, employment law partner at law firm Gordons, said: “The importance of proper consultation and fair selection criteria in making redundancy exercises fair is so often misunderstood or in some cases, perhaps deliberately ignored. This unfortunately has been illustrated all too often by non-UK headquartered employers.
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“One could be forgiven for thinking that those with deep enough pockets think the rules don’t really apply to them. Well, a word to the wise: the rules most certainly do apply to you. It will be interesting to see how Elon Musk responds to these claims.”
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