When Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) CEO Elon Musk took over at Twitter, he laid off a majority of the company’s workforce. Several former employees of Twitter Africa say they still haven’t been paid and the company has left them in the dark.
Musk has slashed approximately 80% of Twitter’s staff since he purchased the social media platform company for $44 billion last year.
According to a CNN report, employees from Twitter’s Africa business accepted the company’s offer to pay three months of severance among other expenses, but they still have not received any money more than seven months after being let go. Furthermore, Twitter won’t even communicate with the former employees.
“They literally ghosted us,” a former Twitter Africa worker reportedly said.
It gets worse — the deal wasn’t even that good. It was less than what Twitter offered to other exiting staff members and the Twitter Africa team members felt they were essentially forced into accepting it.
“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,” one worker said.
It’s not just the former Twitter Africa team that’s having a hard time communicating with Twitter.
CNN reached out to Twitter for comment on the status of the severance package for the former employees and received a poop emoji response. Zenger News sent an email to the company’s media relations department and received the same poop emoji auto-reply.
Earlier this year, Musk tweeted that all emails sent to press@twitter.com would automatically be answered with a poop emoji.
Twitter is also already facing several lawsuits accusing the company of failing to pay employee bonuses. Over the weekend, Musk acknowledged that Twitter’s cash flow is still negative as the result of a 50% decline in advertising revenue on top of “heavy debt.”
The company has been paying its creators though. In a new initiative from Musk, Twitter forked over thousands of dollars to numerous creator accounts over the past week as part of the company’s new ad revenue-sharing program.
© 2023 Zenger News.com. Zenger News does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
Produced in association with Benzinga
Edited by Arnab Nandy