CNN Enterprise
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Laid-off staff at Twitter’s Africa headquarters are accusing Twitter of “intentionally and recklessly flouting the legal guidelines of Ghana” and attempting to “silence and intimidate” them after they have been fired.
The group has employed a lawyer and despatched a letter to the corporate demanding it adjust to the West African nation’s labor legal guidelines, present them with further severance pay and different related advantages, in step with what different Twitter staff will obtain.
They’ve additionally petitioned the Ghanaian authorities to compel Twitter to “adhere to the legal guidelines of Ghana on redundancy and provide the staff a good and simply negotiation and redundancy pay,” based on a letter to the nation’s Chief Labour Officer obtained by CNN.
“It’s clear that Twitter, Inc. beneath Mr Elon Musk is both intentionally or recklessly flouting the legal guidelines of Ghana, is working in dangerous religion and in a fashion that seeks to silence and intimidate former staff into accepting any phrases unilaterally thrown at them,” the letter states.
Twitter laid off all however one of many African staff simply 4 days after the corporate opened a bodily workplace within the capital Accra following Musk’s takeover. However the workers of a few dozen weren’t supplied severance pay, which they are saying is required by Ghana’s labor legal guidelines, primarily based on their employment contracts. Additionally they declare they weren’t knowledgeable in regards to the subsequent steps — not like staff in the USA and Europe — till a day after CNN reported on their scenario.
CNN contacted Twitter for remark however acquired no response.
Within the letter to Twitter Ghana Ltd, obtained by CNN, the African staff rejected a “Ghana Mutual Separation Settlement” from Twitter, which they are saying was despatched to their private emails providing closing pay that the corporate claims to have been arrived at after a negotiation.
A number of members of the group and their lawyer informed CNN that there was no such negotiation on severance pay. They declare it was beneath what’s required by legislation and contradicts what Musk tweeted that departing staff would obtain.
“Everybody exited was supplied 3 months of severance, which is 50% greater than legally required,” Musk tweeted. Twitter knowledgeable the Ghana-based staff in early November that they’d be paid till their final day of employment — December 4. And they’re going to proceed to obtain full pay and advantages throughout the 30-day discover interval.
“It was very imprecise, didn’t speak about excellent go away or paid time without work, and simply requested us to signal if we agree. I by no means bothered to return to the doc as a result of it’s garbage and continues to be in violation of labor legal guidelines right here,” one former worker informed CNN on situation of anonymity.
The Accra-based group accuses Twitter of coping with them in dangerous religion, not being clear, and discriminating towards them in comparison with laid-off staff in different jurisdictions.
“The staff are distressed, humiliated, and intimidated by this flip of occasions. There are non-Ghanaian staff, some with younger households, who moved right here to take up jobs and have now been left unceremoniously within the lurch, with no provision for repatriation bills and no option to talk with Twitter, Inc. and focus on or plead their case,” the discover to Ghana’s Chief Labour Officer says.
Their lawyer, Carla Olympio, says the sudden termination of just about the entire group violated Ghanaian employment legislation as a result of it’s thought of a “redundancy” which requires three-month discover to authorities and a negotiation on redundancy pay.
“In stark distinction to inside firm assurances given to Twitter staff worldwide previous to the takeover, it appears that evidently little try was made to adjust to Ghana’s labor legal guidelines, and the protections enshrined therein for employees in circumstances the place corporations are enterprise mass layoffs resulting from a restructuring or reorganization,” she wrote in an announcement to CNN.
The staff mentioned of their enchantment to Ghana’s Chief Labour Officer that Twitter’s formal entry into the continent began with “nice fanfare and with the assist of the federal government,” they usually anticipate related consideration to their plight now.
They’re demanding 3 months’ gross wage as severance pay, repatriation bills for non-Ghanaian workers, vesting of inventory choices supplied of their contracts, and different advantages comparable to healthcare continuation that have been supplied to workers worldwide.
CNN has reached out to Ghana’s Employment and Labor Relations ministry for remark.
