Twitter playing ‘stupid game’ to stall ex-workers’ legal claims: lawyer

Twitter Inc is refusing to arbitrate authorized claims by a whole bunch of ex-employees who can not produce copies of employment contracts they signed, after the corporate efficiently moved to have their class motion claims despatched to arbitration, in response to a courtroom submitting.

Shannon Liss-Riordan, a lawyer for greater than 1,000 individuals who had been laid off or fired by Twitter final yr, stated she could possibly be compelled to deliver a whole bunch of claims into courtroom simply to have Twitter produce copies of the agreements when it strikes to ship them to arbitration.

Liss-Riordan and Twitter made a joint submitting in San Francisco federal courtroom on Thursday to replace the courtroom forward of a listening to scheduled for Feb. 9.

The staff declare Twitter refused to pay promised severance or give them the advance discover of mass layoffs required by regulation, which the corporate denies.

A federal choose final month stated a number of of the category motion plaintiffs had been required to arbitrate their claims. Others didn’t signal arbitration agreements, so the case has remained in courtroom.

In an interview on Friday, Liss-Riordan stated Twitter is probably going making an attempt to delay the arbitration circumstances in hopes that some staff drop their claims.

“This is just a stupid game that Twitter is trying to play,” she stated. “No one is giving up.” Twitter didn’t reply to a request for remark. In Thursday’s submitting, the corporate’s legal professionals accused Liss-Riordan of making an attempt to shortcut the arbitration course of by not producing all the agreements.

“It appears obvious that Plaintiffs’ counsel rushed to submit more than 1,000 incomplete and insufficient demands for arbitration for the sole purpose of leveraging large initial case management fees against Twitter,” they wrote.

The firm additionally stated it was not obligated to offer staff any severance and the pay it did give to departing staff “was generous based on Twitter’s financial circumstances.”

So-called “mass arbitrations,” the place a whole bunch or hundreds of individuals file related particular person claims, can value firms thousands and thousands of {dollars} in charges alone. Plaintiffs’ legal professionals have more and more used the tactic to push again in opposition to firms that require staff or prospects to signal arbitration agreements.

Liss-Riordan has filed three different lawsuits in opposition to Twitter stemming from the layoffs, together with claims that the corporate focused feminine staff and compelled out staff with disabilities. The firm has moved to dismiss these claims.

The case is Cornet v. Twitter Inc, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, No. 3:22-cv-06857.

For the plaintiffs: Shannon Liss-Riordan of Lichten & Liss-Riordan.

For Twitter: Brian Berry of Morgan Lewis & Bockius.

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