In a recent development, Twitter employees sued the social media company claiming that the company refuses to pay 2022 bonuses.
How Did This Happen?
Despite this, Twitter promises that the employees would be paid out at 50 percent of their target amounts.
The social media company has a cash performance bonus plan that is paid out annually.
In the months leading up to Elon Musk’s acquisition of the company in October, executives, including former Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal, said the bonuses would be paid, according to the lawsuit filed Tuesday in San Francisco federal court.
Further the employees said, “Twitter refused to pay employees who remained employed by the company in the first quarter of 2023 any bonus.”
Notably, Twitter has lost more than half its advertising revenue as brands stopped trusting the site to remove violent, pornographic and hateful content, since Musk took over.
Besides this, the technology company shed more than 75 percent of its employees, through layoffs and resignations.
Former Senior Employee Sued Twitter
Interestingly, the proposed class-action complaint on behalf of current and former Twitter employees employed in the first quarter of 2023 who didn’t receive their bonus was filed by Mark Shobinger.
Here plaintiff Mark Shobinger was Twitter’s senior director of compensation until late last month.
The suit states that the job entailed overseeing executive and incentive pay and in November expanded his responsibilities to include employee compensation globally.
In the meantime, Twitter has disbanded its media relations department and doesn’t respond to requests for comment.
It appears that the company has been sued numerous times for allegedly failing to pay its bills, including rent, and by former employees for severance and back pay since Musk’s acquisition.
Further, the lawsuit states that the social media company has traditionally set a target for its bonus plan, which is funded throughout the year and pays out at least 50 percent of the target annually.
Adding, “Both before and after Musk’s acquisition was completed in October 2022, Twitter’s management continuously promised the company’s employees, including plaintiff, that their annual bonus for 2022 would be paid under the Bonus Plan.”
Shobinger said that he quit as Twitter reneged on various promises to its employees, including its refusal to pay the bonuses and hence sued for breach of contract.
The hearing will be Schobinger v. Twitter, 23-cv-3007, US District Court for the Northern District of California (San Francisco).
