Twitter discrimination class action alleges layoffs impacted more women than men

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Twitter class action lawsuit overview:

• Who: Plaintiffs Carolina Bernal Strifling and Willow Wren Turkal filed a class action lawsuit against Twitter Inc.
• Why: They allege Elon Musk’s layoffs affected a much larger percentage of female employees than male employees.
• Where: The Twitter discrimination lawsuit was filed in California federal court.

After billionaire Elon Musk’s purchase of the microblogging site Twitter, the subsequent mass termination of employees has affected female employees more significantly than men, according to a Twitter class action lawsuit.

Plaintiffs Carolina Bernal Strifling and Willow Wren Turkal were Twitter employees who were laid off along with many others in November 2022. More than half of Twitter’s workforce has been laid off since Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, the Twitter class action lawsuit says.

On Nov. 4, approximately 2,621 out of 5,134 Twitter employees were reportedly notified they were being laid off. According to the Twitter discrimination class action lawsuit, 57% of these affected employees were female, while just 47% were male.

“Not only is this a large percentage difference, but it is also extremely statistically significant,” the Twitter class action lawsuit says.

Gender disparity cannot be explained by job title, Twitter discrimination class action says

Of employees in engineering roles, the plaintiffs say, 63% of women were laid off compared to 48% of men, putting to rest any claim that the disparity was due to Musk’s intent to retain more employees in engineering-related roles.

“The odds that this disparity between women and men in engineering-related roles being laid off is due only to chance is … 1.103 out of 100 trillion,” the Twitter discrimination class action lawsuit says.

Strifling and Turkal allege Musk implemented other workplace expectations with the intent to drive out more female workers, such as requiring some Twitter employees to work “12 hour shifts, 7 days a week” and stating the “expectation is literally to work 24/7 to get this out.”

Musk surely knew these policy changes and expectations would disproportionately affect women, who are more often caregivers for children and other family members and would therefore be less likely to comply with these demands, the Twitter class action alleges.

The Twitter class action lawsuit is seeking lost pay, lost benefits, bonuses and equity, emotional distress damages, punitive damages, interest and other relief on behalf of the class.

Twitter is facing several lawsuits in the wake of its sudden mass layoffs. On Nov. 8, a Twitter class action lawsuit alleged the company’s mass layoffs violated the law. Twitter is reportedly seeking to handle the case in arbitration.

What do you think of the Twitter discrimination allegations? Join the discussion in the comments.

Strifling and Turkal are represented by Shannon Liss-Riordan and Thomas Fowler of Lichten & Liss-Riordan PC.

The Twitter discrimination class action lawsuit is Carolina Bernal Strifling, et al. v. Twitter Inc., Case No. 3:22-cv-07739, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, San Francisco Division.

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