Elon Musk’s X social media platform, formerly Twitter, has reportedly reached a tentative settlement in a $500 million class-action lawsuit over severance pay, the New York Times reports.
The suit stems from when Musk took over Twitter in 2022; he cut more than 80% of the staff (around 6,000 employees). Many laid-off employees sued, claiming they were owed severance. Now, almost three years after the firings, X Corp has settled, though the terms have not been disclosed.
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Oral arguments in the case were scheduled to begin on September 17 in San Francisco.
Fox Business reports that, in the lawsuit, the laid-off employees claim a company severance plan from 2019 stated that cut workers receive two months’ base salary — and a week for every year served. The lawsuit says that some workers affected by the layoffs received only one month of severance pay, while others did not receive anything, per the filing.
Separate cases regarding former senior executives at the company are still ongoing.
The severance arbitration cases of more than 2,000 former Twitter employees were also reached. The Times calls the moves an “about-face for the billionaire.”
Musk is the richest person in the world, with $379 billion at press time, per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
