Former employees sue Twitter, claiming more women than men have been fired | US News

Two women who lost their jobs at Twitter after Elon Musk took over are suing the company, claiming that recent layoffs have disproportionately affected female employees.

About half of the social media network’s workforce were Released early last month after Mr Musk bought the company for $44 billion.

He then told those who remained that they had to work “High Intensity”.

“In order to build a groundbreaking Twitter 2.0 in the future and thrive in an increasingly competitive world, we must be extremely persistent,” he said in a statement.

“That means long hours at high intensity. Only exceptional performance will be rated as passed.”

The lawsuit alleges that these requirements disproportionately affect women “who are more likely to care for children and other family members and are therefore unable to meet such requirements.”

The lawsuit, filed for former employees Carolina Bernal Strifling and Willow Wren Turkal, alleges that 57% of female employees were fired on Nov. 4, compared to 47% of male employees, citing a spreadsheet.

For women in engineering positions, the gap is said to have been even wider: 63% were fired, compared to 48% for men.

The lawsuit was filed by prominent labor rights attorney Shannon Liss-Riordan.

“The mass termination of employees on Twitter has affected female employees to a much greater extent than male employees – and at a rate that is highly statistically significant,” Ms. Liss-Riordan wrote.

Speaking in federal court in San Francisco, Ms Liss-Riordan said she wanted to show that the “richest man in the world is not above the law”.

She added: “We argue that the arbitration agreements (signed by Twitter employees) are unenforceable.

“But if we have to go through arbitration individually, we’re willing to do that.”

Twitter has yet to respond to a Sky News request for comment.

It was reported earlier this week Bedrooms were installed at the Twitter offices in San Francisco.