Musk's X wins tentative dismissal of sex bias lawsuit over mass layoffs
A federal judge dismissed a sex bias lawsuit against X (formerly Twitter) regarding mass layoffs after Musk's acquisition, stating plaintiffs failed to prove layoffs were motivated by gender. Judge Jon Tigar emphasized that no evidence compared qualifications of laid-off female employees to those retained. Plaintiffs may amend their case, which involves claims of disproportionate female layoffs, but allegations are considered unsubstantiated in context. The ruling is part of ongoing legal challenges against the company following extensive layoffs under Musk's leadership.
By Daniel Wiessner
Aug 27 (Reuters) - A federal judge in San Francisco has once again dismissed a proposed class action claiming social media platform X targeted female employees for layoffs when Elon Musk took over the company, then called Twitter.
U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar in a written ruling on Monday said it was not clear whether the two named plaintiffs in the 2022 lawsuit were laid off that year along with thousands of other workers or left Twitter for some other reason.
And even if they were subjected to the layoffs, the plaintiffs had not alleged that their sex was a motivating factor, the judge said.
“The amended complaint does not allege anything about the comparative qualifications, experience, job performance, or abilities of any male employees who were not laid off to suggest that similarly situated men were treated more favorably,” Tigar wrote.
Tigar dismissed the case for the second time, but gave the plaintiffs three weeks to amend their lawsuit to include more detailed claims.
A lawyer for the plaintiffs did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday. X responded to multiple requests for comment with emails stating “busy now, please check back later.”
The lawsuit is one of several that former employees filed in the months following Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of Twitter and the ensuing layoffs of about 75% of its workforce.
Other cases accuse the company of not giving employees and contractors advance notice of layoffs, failing to pay billions of dollars in promised severance, and pushing out workers. X has denied wrongdoing and some of the cases have been dismissed, prompting appeals from the plaintiffs that are pending.
In Monday’s case, the plaintiffs say that Twitter laid off about 58% of its female engineers compared to about 45% of men after Musk took over, and cited alleged comments by Musk that they say were sexist.
But those comments were unrelated to the layoffs, which were carried out by individual managers and not Musk, Tigar said. He also rejected the plaintiffs’ comparison of their case to a separate age bias lawsuit stemming from the layoffs in which a different judge denied X’s motion to dismiss.
In that case, Tigar said, the plaintiff specifically alleged that he was subjected to the layoffs and that he had performed as well or better than younger coworkers who kept their jobs.
“Plaintiffs fail to make such allegations here,” he wrote.
The case is Strifling v. Twitter Inc, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, No. 4:22-cv-07739.
For the plaintiffs: Shannon Liss-Riordan of Lichten & Liss-Riordan
For X: Eric Meckley of Morgan Lewis & Bockius
Read more:
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