A lawyer for some of the fired Twitter employees says that the number of them taking the company to court “goes up daily.”
Lisa Bloom told the BBC that she has already helped about 100 former employees, and that number is growing.
Amir Shevat, one of her clients, told the BBC that Twitter CEO Elon Musk had “failed” at running the company.
The BBC asked Twitter for a comment, but they didn’t give one.
Mr Shevat described the chaos at Twitter following Mr Musk’s $44 billion (£39.3 billion) takeover in November during an appearance on the BBC World Service episode Tech Tent.
Mr Shevat was in charge of about 150 people at the Twitter developer platform as the head of product.
He said that almost everyone on his team lost their jobs in one night.
“We got an email saying that there was some kind of reorganization, and then what happened was that I was talking to my team, and one by one, they told me that their computer had “bricked.”
“To brick a computer means to make it look more like a brick, so you can’t log in and you can’t do anything with that computer.”
He also said, “It was a very, very hard time that made a lot of engineers who cared a lot about the company feel very down.”
When Mr Musk took over, he fired about half of the 8,000 people who worked for Twitter.
Mr Musk had previously expressed concerns that the company was rapidly losing money and was “on the fast track to insolvency.” He has now claimed that these reductions have set the business on a “positive path.”
Mr Shevat joined Twitter in 2021 when the social media network bought his company, Reshuffle, which was a start-up.
He is now going to arbitration with his former boss, who is being represented by Ms Bloom, a lawyer.
She told the BBC that she was working for about 100 fired Twitter employees in the US, but that “the number goes up every day.”
Ms Bloom also said that there were different claims, such as alleged contract violations and unfair treatment.
“Strange” experience
People who were fired in the UK are also going to court, and people who work at Twitter’s only office in Africa, which is in Ghana, have also hired lawyers.
In November, when the takeover happened, Mr Shevat logged on to an “all hands” meeting that Mr Musk held. He said it was “awkward.”
“We tried to get him to tell us what he wants the company to do and what direction it should go in. His answers weren’t always right, and they weren’t very inspiring either “he said.
“When we asked him, “What do you think the future holds for Twitter?” He said that he believes we can help him get to Mars. I don’t see how building a social app has anything to do with going to Mars.”
Twitter is just one of many big tech companies that have laid off a lot of people in the past few months. Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft are just a few others.
Mr Shevat claimed that he had an issue with Twitter’s handling of the downsizing rather than “the shrinking” itself.
“The right approach to handle things is in a considerate, polite, and effective manner. Elon failed as a leader in each of these instances “stated he.
Mr Shevat told the BBC that Twitter had promised workers four months of pay as a severance package, but they only got one month in the end. He said that there was “zero reason” for the change in the package.
He said that Mr Musk’s treatment of staff was “unfair” and that he was “worried” about Twitter’s future.
“We wanted to make people’s lives more enjoyable and useful. And when Elon bought the company, all of that was thrown away “he said.
