Since acquiring the company, Twitter CEO Elon Musk has been in a mire of controversy. His latest scandal – not paying his staff. Twitter’s Africa team was laid off to cut costs for the billionaire, who did not provide them with severance pay or benefits.
The team, which was based in Ghana’s capital Accra, was promised three months of severance pay when they signed their contract. However, after they were dismissed, Musk reneged on their agreement and ceased communication, CNN reports.
Some former employees spoke to CNN about Musk’s mistreatment under the promise of anonymity due to non-disclosure agreements they had signed before leaving the company.
“Although Twitter has eventually settled former staff in other locations, Africa staff have still been left in the lurch despite us eventually agreeing to specific negotiated terms,” one person said.
The team had initially been hesitant to the promise of severance pay without benefits as it was significantly lower than what was given to other employees. However, they eventually accepted. “Twitter was non-responsive until we agreed to the three months because we were all so stressed and exhausted and tired of the uncertainty, reluctant to take on the extra burdens of a court case so we felt we had no choice but to settle,” said another former staff member.
Musk and Twitter representatives have yet to respond to the situation. Rather, apparently, all requests for additional information garner the same response – a poop emoji.
In March, Musk shared that this would be the standard response to all media inquiries.
press@twitter.com now auto responds with 💩
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Source: Black Enterprise
