Elon Musk’s alleged penchant for not paying bills is catching up with him. In the wake of numerous lawsuits claiming the world’s richest man failed to pay severance owed to many of the 6,000 employees he fired after acquiring Twitter. On Monday, CNBC reported that the tech company now known as X is facing some 2,200 arbitration cases filed by ex-employees, which come with $3.5 million in required fees—an amount that doesn’t even include the actual severance owed to those Musk let go.

In October, shortly after taking Twitter’s reins, Musk laid off more than half of its employees, promising most at least two months’ salary plus a week’s pay for every year they’d worked at the firm. Thousands claim that they haven’t received a single dime, and ex-employees have since filed several lawsuits seeking their promised benefits.

  • @PrinceWith999Enemies@lemmy.world
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    4910 months ago

    I haven’t yet seen an article where a reporter totals up the numbers and associated dollar amounts associated with Musk’s mismanagement. In terms of general classes - and I’m just going off the top of my head here - we’re looking at (including only the twitter related ones):

    1. Failure to pay agreed upon payouts for fired employees
    2. Age discriminatory termination lawsuits
    3. Violation of employment contracts re: return to work and other conditions
    4. Failure to pay rents and infrastructure fees
    5. Failure to moderate content according to legally required regulations
    6. Allocation of TSLA employees to work at Twitter, a different company with different shareholders, thus robbing Peter to pay Paul on investors’ dimes

    There were also potential suits over mass terminations contrary to state and national laws, but I haven’t heard as much about those recently.

    • @remotelove@lemmy.ca
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      1510 months ago

      In the event that Twitter files for bankruptcy, would it partially shield them from all that debt? Yeah, it’s a dirty play and would totally expect Elon to do it if he could.

      • originalucifer
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        10 months ago

        its so much worse than just that. there are so many financial mechanisms to avoid liability its not even funny. most of the unwashed are unfamiliar with them because they are specifically written to keep rich people rich.

        money flows to the top, accountability… not so much. and that is 100% the design.

        the twist here is a callous, idiotic billionaire using this lack of responsibility for his own enjoyment. he will never, ever personally suffer for any of the harm caused to all humans affected by his terrible business practices. he is shielded by money, or what we call money these days.

        twitter will cost him billions in personal funds when it goes under, and it will not affect him at all.

      • papalonian
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        310 months ago

        Imagine the headlines. World’s richest man files for bankruptcy.

          • Billiam
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            310 months ago

            That’s the funny part, he won’t. It’s X that will as it is a separate entity.

            • @remotelove@lemmy.ca
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              10 months ago

              I am a free speech absolutist and I am saying Twitter. Prepare to be banned from the entire Fediverse.