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A new class action lawsuit has been filed against Twitter alleging that the company targeted women during widespread layoffs initiated by Elon Musk.
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on Dec. 7 by attorney Shannon Liss-Riordan on behalf of two former Twitter employees who were laid off by the company in November.
The two women said they are also filing the suit on behalf of other female Twitter employees across the country who “have been discharged or constructively discharged from their jobs during the chaotic weeks since multi-billionaire Elon Musk purchased the company.”
It alleges that Twitter “engaged in egregious discriminatory practices by disproportionately targeting women for lay-offs” and broke federal and California laws banning workplace sex discrimination.
Musk laid off around 3,700 Twitter employees on Nov. 4, shortly after acquiring the company for $44 billion.
Musk has said the layoffs were needed in order to “place Twitter on a healthy path” and make the company more productive as the platform was losing over $4 million a day.
“The mass termination of employees at Twitter has impacted female employees to a much greater extent than male employees – and to a highly statistically significant degree,” the lawsuit states.Women ‘Forced to Leave’ Twitter
“Moreover, Elon Musk has made a number of publicly discriminatory remarks about women, further confirming that the mass termination’s greater impact on female employees resulted from discrimination,” the lawsuit claims.
