Elon Musk’s X Corp., the parent company of Twitter, is under investigation for building code violations at Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters on Market Street. The investigation is based on online public records with the county’s Department of Building Inspection. The San Francisco Chronicle reported the investigation, which follows a lawsuit filed by six former Twitter employees on May 16. The lawsuit alleges that Musk’s “transition team” consistently ordered them to break local and federal laws by making unsafe modifications to the company’s office space.
The lawsuit alleges that under Musk’s management, X Corp. directed employees to turn rooms in the San Francisco headquarters office into “hotel rooms,” while lying to inspectors and their landlord that they were just “temporary rest spaces” with some comfortable furniture added and no substantive or structural changes. One employee was told to place locks on the unauthorized “hotel room” doors that did not meet California code that “requires locks that automatically disengage when the building’s fire suppression systems are triggered.” The employee quit instead of breaking the law, according to the lawsuit.
The complaint also alleges that Musk-led Twitter failed to pay the employees severance, back pay, and benefits they were owed, and discriminated against some senior employees on the basis of age, gender, and sexual orientation when it decided to terminate them. Additionally, the lawsuit said Musk and members of his transition team, namely Boring Company executive Steve Davis, ordered employees involved in the management of real estate to cut costs by $500 million as quickly as they could. In the drive to cut costs, the Musk transition team told employees to refuse to pay landlords who were owed rent by the company.
Miami Mayor’s Interest
Despite the ongoing investigation and lawsuit, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez is actively courting Musk to move Twitter headquarters to Miami. On Friday, he wrote on Twitter, “let’s get them to MIA asap.”
Twitter responded to CNBC’s request for further information with an automated response that included a poop emoji but no comment. Meanwhile, a representative for the Department of Building Inspection in San Francisco said in an emailed statement that the complaint was opened Friday morning, and “no further action has been taken yet.” The spokesperson wrote that they expect to reach out to building management soon and are not speculating on future potential enforcement action.
Elon Musk’s X Corp. and Twitter are facing an investigation over building code violations at Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters. The investigation follows a lawsuit filed by six former Twitter employees who allege that Musk’s “transition team” knowingly and repeatedly ordered them to break local and federal laws by making unsafe modifications to the company’s office space. The lawsuit also alleges that Musk-led Twitter failed to pay employees what they were owed and discriminated against some senior employees. Despite this, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez has expressed interest in having Twitter move its headquarters to Miami.
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