Several employees of Twitter have taken legal action against the social media giant, claiming that the company has failed to deliver on its promise to pay out bonuses that were promised to them in 2022. As per the lawsuit, Twitter promised employees at least half their bonuses last year. However, no such payments were made.
The lawsuit was filed on Tuesday in a San Francisco federal court. It claims that Twitter executives, including former Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal, had told employees that they would be given half their target bonus amounts.
As per practice, Twitter's cash performance bonus plan is paid out annually. The employees were promised that the bonuses would be disbursed as initially promised. These promises were made ahead of Elon Musk's acquisition of the company in October. However, after Elon Musk's acquisition, Twitter allegedly refused to pay bonuses to employees who were working with the company in the first quarter of 2023.
As per Forbes, Mark Shobinger, former senior director of compensation at Twitter, has filed a proposed class-action complaint on behalf of current and former employees who were employed during the first quarter of 2023 and did not receive their bonuses. The lawsuit alleges that Twitter breached its agreement to pay out bonuses and seeks to represent a group of affected individuals.
This is not the first time that Twitter has been in the news for the wrong reasons after Elon Musk's acquisition of it. For instance, Twitter's advertising revenue has plummeted by over 50% with brands losing confidence in the platform's ability to effectively remove violent, pornographic, and hateful content. This is also not the first lawsuit that Twitter has faced since Musk's acquisition. Former and current employees have taken Twitter to court over issues ranging from non-payment of bills to non-payment of severance packages.