Former employees of Twitter in Ghana, who were terminated in November, find themselves in a challenging situation as they have not received severance pay and have had no communication from the company for the past three months. Sources familiar with the matter informed CNBC about the ordeal faced by these employees. Elon Musk, the new owner of Twitter, implemented cost-cutting measures that led to the dismissal of a significant portion of the company’s workforce at its sole African office. Musk explained in a tweet during the announcement of global job cuts in November that the company was incurring daily losses of over $4 million, leaving no choice but to downsize. However, it was unclear which office and jurisdiction he was referring to when he mentioned that everyone affected was offered three months of severance pay, which exceeded the legal requirement by 50%.
According to Ghanaian employment law, employees are entitled to redundancy pay and a three-month notice period before being made redundant. However, sources revealed that Twitter’s workers in Accra, the capital of Ghana, were provided with less than a month’s notice. One former employee, who wished to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of the situation, informed CNBC on Monday that the workers had requested compensation instead of notice and damages for emotional distress as part of the negotiated settlement with Twitter. Unfortunately, both requests were rejected.
Another source, also speaking on the condition of anonymity, stated, “Twitter has demonstrated bad faith towards us since we were laid off in November 2022. There was no attempt to negotiate a severance package until international news outlets started reporting on this matter and after we had approached the Labour Office in Ghana.” This source also expressed disappointment with Twitter’s response, saying, “It has been a frustrating process, and they rejected some of our reasonable requests considering the circumstances and how we have been treated.”
Eventually, the employees, through their legal representative, accepted what they deemed a diluted severance offer in May. However, since then, they have not received any communication from Twitter. The second source added, “We agreed to the offer they made so we could move on with our lives. However, they have completely ignored us since our lawyer accepted the offer in May. Some of us still have outstanding expenses, and those have not been paid either.” CNBC reached out to Twitter for comment, but only received an automated response.
The first source also shared their frustration, stating, “Everyone is exhausted and disillusioned. This settlement is not even what was promised, but we decided to accept it anyway, and it has been a struggle.” They continued, “Some of us are still unemployed and have families to support, so this severance pay would have made a significant difference. It is disheartening to see it delayed in this manner.”
Since Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter for $44 billion in October, the company has experienced a nearly 50% decline in advertising revenue and continues to face negative cash flow. Musk also mentioned the burden of a substantial debt pile. Additionally, Twitter faces competition from Meta’s new platform, Threads, which attracted over 100 million users within its first week. Scott Galloway, a marketing professor at New York University’s Stern Business School, compared Twitter to MySpace, a social network devoid of innovation slowly being phased out by Meta. Galloway noted that the decline in revenue is linked to the reduction in workforce, but not caused by it.
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