Elon Musk does not owe ex-Twitter staffers $500 million in severance, court rules
Elon Musk faces several lawsuits for firing more than 6,000 Twitter employees, including then-CEO Parag Agrawal, following Musk’s 2022 takeover of the social media platform. On Tuesday, Musk defeated one of those lawsuits, as a federal judge ruled X Corp. doesn’t owe the ex-employees any more severance.
The lawsuit, filed by Twitter’s former head of people experience and another ex-manager, alleged that X Corp. paid fired Twitter employees less severance than they were contractually promised. The complaint stated Twitter offered these 6,000 fired employees, at most, three months of severance pay, which Musk confirmed in a tweet at the time. Twitter’s Severance Plan, which was in effect since 2019, had previously promised senior employees upwards of six months of severance pay, according to the complaint.
The plaintiff estimated Musk owed these former employees upwards of $500 million, citing protections under the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).
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