Twitter Wins Dismissal of Elon Musk Layoff Gender-Bias Lawsuit, for Now
Twitter Inc. won the dismissal of a lawsuit claiming Elon Musk's mass layoffs forced a disproportionate number of women to leave the company.
US District Judge Jon Tigar ruled Monday that the plaintiffs had not first attempted to fully resolve their complaint through federal agencies, including the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Tigar also said the plaintiffs can amend and refile their complaint.
The lawsuit in San Francisco federal court stems from Musk's move in November to eliminate more than half of Twitter's head count just after he acquired the company for $44 billion. Female workers were unfairly targeted due to sex discrimination, according to the suit.
The lawsuit was filed by Carolina Bernal Strifling, who lives in Miami and worked for Twitter for seven years, and Willow Wren Turkal of San Jose, California, who worked for the company for less than two years. The plaintiffs sought to bring a class action on behalf of women who they argue were unfairly and improperly fired.
Shannon Liss-Riordan, a lawyer representing the plaintiffs, said she will refile a new complaint to meet the judge's requirements. “The ultimate decision-maker in these layoffs, Elon Musk, has a history of making hostile and demeaning comments about women,” Liss-Riodan said in an email. One such comment she cited was: “it is more important for women to have babies than careers.”
Tigar ruled the women also failed to allege that Twitter engaged in a “pattern or practice of discrimination.” They attempted to establish such a pattern by arguing that Musk, not Twitter, implemented a reduction-in-force, or RIF, with a policy requiring employees to work more hours and in physical offices, rather than remotely, according to the opinion.
RIF and
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