TWITTER has been sued over Elon Musk’s plans to axe around half of its workforce.
The lawsuit was filed in a San Francisco court – just days after the Tesla mogul completed the $44billion takeover.
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Twitter employs around 7,500 workers, so it’s feared that up to 3,700 could be laid off.
Staffers are claiming that they’ve not been given enough notice – which they say is in violation of state and federal law, according to Bloomberg.
In an email obtained by The Washington Post, the layoffs are set to begin today.
It said: “Team, In an effort to place Twitter on a healthy path, we will go through the difficult process of reducing our global workforce on Friday.
“We recognize that this will impact a number of individuals who have made valuable contributions to Twitter, but this action is, unfortunately, necessary to ensure the company’s success moving forward.”
Several workers have already claimed that they’ve been locked out of their email and Slack accounts, according to The Telegraph.
One employee, who hasn’t been identified, told CNBC: “It’s total chaos, house melting down, everyone looking towards this email.”
While, another staffer said: “At the end of this nightmare, I better get a cash prize.”
It comes after Musk reportedly took away workers’ once-a-month day of rest.
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People supposedly familiar with the matter confirmed the change to Bloomberg.
The report says that a monthly company day off, which was introduced during the pandemic period, is under the axe.
The billionaire has made several changes to the social networking giant already since taking over as CEO.
He also has plans to cancel Twitter’s remote working policy.
He wants staff he hasn’t culled in the office full-time so they can implement a host of changes he has for the site.
Musk completed the takeover of the social networking giant on October 27.
Announcing the completion of the deal, he tweeted: “The bird is freed.”
But, the company’s former CEO Parag Agrawal and CFO Ned Segal were fired.
Musk also axed the head of legal policy, trust, and safety Vijaya Gadde and Sean Edgett, who belongs to the company’s general counsel, inside sources told The Washington Post.
He even changed his bio to “Chief Twit” before later describing himself as “Twitter Complaint Hotline Operator”.
Musk had previously explained the reasons he wanted to take over Twitter.
He said: “The reason I acquired Twitter is because it is important to the future of civilization to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence.
“I didn’t do it because it would be easy. I didn’t do it to make more money.
“I did it to try and help humanity, whom I love. And I do so with humility, recognizing that failure in pursuing this goal, despite our best efforts, is a very real possibility.”
