Former African Twitter Employees Allege Discrimination Over Severance Terms

According to CNN reports, several laid-off employees at Twitter’s African headquarters are claiming that the company is “deliberately and recklessly flouting the laws of Ghana.”

This comes in the wake of the recent breaking news that Twitter had laid off almost all of its African employees, without making any arrangements for severance pay. The layoffs affected Twitter's African headquarters, which are located in Accra, Ghana. The African layoffs are another development in the flow of things that have happened ever since Elon Musk took over the major ownership of the tech company.

The African employees were laid off only four days after the Accra office resumed in-office operations following a year-long hiatus. Prior to that, the Ghana-based employees were working remotely, and according to CNN, only one employee had been retained in the Ghana office following the massive layoffs.

A group of former Twitter employees are now accusing the company of ignoring Ghana's employment laws, and according to CNN, have since hired a lawyer and sent a letter to the company demanding its compliancewithWest African labor laws. The employees are also asking the tech company to disburse more severance pay and make other benefits available to them like other twitter employees are receiving.

In a letter to Twitter Ghana Ltd, obtained by CNN, the African employees rejected a “Ghana Mutual Separation Agreement” from Twitter, which they say was sent to their personal emails offering final pay thatthe company says it arrived after a negotiation.

The group have also taking things a step further by asking the Ghanaian government to get involved and compel Twitter to adhere to the instated labor laws in an another letter obtained by CNN addressing the country’s Chief Labour Officer, the group said that it was evident that the company was "deliberately or recklessly flouting the laws of Ghana."

“It is clear that Twitter, Inc, under Mr Elon Musk is either deliberately or recklessly flouting the laws of Ghana, or is operating in bad faith and in a manner that seeks to silence and intimidate former employees into accepting any terms unilaterally thrown at them,” the letter stated.

Another anonymous former Twitter employee who spoke to CNN on the condition of anonymity said that the company had been "vague" in explaining severance benefits or time off, and instead wanted the employees to hurriedly sign the documents.

“It was very vague, did not talk about outstanding leave or paid time off, and just asked us to sign if we agree. I never bothered to go back to the document because it is rubbish and is still in violation of labor laws here,” said the employee.