Twitter layoffs hit women hardest, federal discrimination lawsuit claims

SAN FRANCISCO - Twitter is facing mounting legal troubles after Elon Musk took over the communications platform, with a new lawsuit filed alleging sexual discrimination in the layoffs after he acquired the company.

Workers say the layoffs since Musk's takeover in October, targeted women, and the disabled. The workers were in federal court on Thursday. 

"We have now filed four class action lawsuits against Twitter related to the horrific experiences that these employees have been put through," said attorney Shannon Liss-Riordan. "Elon Musk it seems has found a new way every day to trample on workers' rights."

The suits range from employees not being given adequate notice of their layoffs, to the latest suit filed, alleging that women employees were targeted for termination.

The workers' lawyer says the company laid of 57% of its female workers compared to 47% of men. When it came to women engineers, 63% of women lost their jobs compared to 48% of men. 

Liss-Riordan said she had a statistician review those ratios. "The chance of that occurring by chance is about nine out of 100 trillion. So, last night we filed a sex discrimination case against Twitter. It's not a huge surprise that women were hit so hard by these layoffs."

SEE ALSO: San Francisco investigating Twitter over fired janitors and office beds

Former workers said Twitter used to be a great place to work, but that the culture shifted suddenly after the purchase. "You know, it changed overnight. I've been through other acquisitions, I've never seen anything like this," said Wren Turkal. "And we just want them to live up to the commitments that they made to us that gave us comfort in, like staying with the company through the acquisition process."

There are numerous lawsuits working their way through the courts, the attorney for the former workers said even Musk has to follow labor laws. "The richest man in the world is not above the law. Employees have rights here, and we are dedicated to making sure those rights are enforced," said Liss-Riordan.

KTVU did reach out to Twitter's communication team and directly to Musk via Twitter. So far we have not received a response to this latest round of federal court filings.