Fired employees at Twitter’s Africa headquarters are accusing Twitter of “deliberately and recklessly disregarding the laws of Ghana” and trying to “silence and intimidate” them after they were fired.
The team hired a lawyer and sent a letter to the company demanding that it comply with the West African country’s labor laws, provide them with additional compensation and other relevant benefits.
They also petitioned the Ghanaian government to compel Twitter to “comply with Ghana’s laws on redundancy and offer employees a fair deal and severance pay,” according to a letter to the country’s labor chief obtained by Ghana. CNN 🇧🇷
“It is clear that Twitter, Inc. under the command of Mr. Elon Musk is deliberately or recklessly flouting the laws of Ghana, is operating in bad faith and in a manner that seeks to silence and intimidate former employees into accepting any terms unilaterally launched against them,” the letter states.
Twitter laid off all but one of its African employees just four days after the company opened a physical office in the capital Accra following its acquisition of Elon Musk.
But the dozen or so employees have not received compensation, which they say is required by Ghana’s labor laws based on their employment contracts.
They also allege that they were not informed of the next steps — unlike officials in the United States and Europe — until a day after the CNN reported your situation.
In the letter to Twitter Ghana Ltd, the African officials rejected a “Ghana Mutual Separation Agreement” from Twitter, which they say was sent to their personal emails offering the final payment that the company claims arrived after a negotiation.
Several team members and their attorney said there had been no such negotiation over compensation. They claim it was below what is required by law and contradicts what Musk tweeted departing employees would receive.
“Everyone who left was offered 3 months severance, which is 50% more than what is legally required,” Musk tweeted.
Twitter informed employees based in Ghana in early November that they would be paid until the last day of work — December 4th. And they will continue to receive full pay and benefits during the 30 day notice period.
“It was very vague, didn’t talk about pending leave or paid time off, and just asked us to sign if we agreed. I never bothered to go back to the document because it’s rubbish and still violates labor laws here,” a former employee told CNN under condition of anonymity.
The Accra team accuses Twitter of treating them in bad faith, of a lack of transparency and of discrimination against dismissed employees in other jurisdictions.
“Employees are distressed, humiliated and intimidated by this turn of events. There are non-Ghanaian staff, some with young families, who moved here for work and have now been unceremoniously left in the lurch, with no provision for repatriation expenses and no way to communicate with Twitter,” the notice to the Director of Labor reads. from Ghana.
Their lawyer, Carla Olympio, says the sudden termination of almost the entire team violated Ghana’s labor law because it is considered a “dismissal” that requires three months’ notice to authorities and a negotiation over severance pay.
“In stark contrast to the company’s internal assurances given to Twitter employees around the world prior to the acquisition, it appears that little attempt has been made to comply with Ghana’s labor laws and the protections enshrined therein for workers in circumstances where companies are carrying out mass layoffs due to a restructuring or reorganization,” she wrote in a statement to CNN 🇧🇷
The officials said in their appeal to the Chief Labor Officer of Ghana that Twitter’s formal entry into the continent began with “great fanfare and backing from the government”, and they expect similar attention to their situation now.
They are demanding 3 months of gross salary as severance, repatriation expenses for non-Ghanaian employees, vesting of stock options provided in their contracts, and other benefits such as continued medical care offered to employees across the world.
THE CNN contacted Ghana’s Ministry of Employment and Labor Relations for comment.
Source: CNN Brasil
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