Elon Musk is in news again and once again for a wrong reason. The billionaire has been accused of firing old age employees at X(formerly Twitter) in October last year. A US judge has ruled that a lawsuit accusing Elon Musk of age bias in the laying off of employees may move forward.
The lawsuit, filed by former X employee, alleges that the company engaged in age discrimination when it laid off its workers. The plaintiffs claim that older employees were disproportionately targeted during the workforce reductions following Elon Musk’s acquisition of the company in 2022, reports Reuters.
The plaintiff named John Zeman claims that older workers were unduly affected by the mass layoffs. He alleges that X laid off 60% of employees aged 50 or older and nearly three-quarters of those over 60, while only 54% of younger employees under 50 were laid off.
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US district judge Susan Illston said that the plaintiff provided enough evidence to support that mass layoffs disproportionately affected the older age employees at X to push the case forward. Judge ruled that the federal laws prohibiting age bias in the workplace allow for what are known as “disparate impact” claims to be pursued in a class-action lawsuit. This decision comes amid differing opinions in the courts on this issue.
However, the judge did dismiss a claim that X intentionally targeted older workers for layoffs but granted Zeman a month to amend his lawsuit to provide more detail on this specific allegation.
Zeman’s attorney, Shannon Liss-Riordan, expressed satisfaction with the decision, stating that “this decision validates the arguments we are making that the discrimination claims can go forward.” X has not yet responded to requests for comment regarding this lawsuit.
This lawsuit is just one of several lawsuits that X is facing after it fired more than half of its workforce after Musk’s acquisition. These lawsuits include allegations that X failed to provide proper notice for layoffs and that Musk advocated for a more demanding work style directly impacting workers with disabilities and leading them to leave the work. One of the lawsuits also alleges that the company owes former employees at least $500 million in severance pay, though Twitter has denied these claims.
With Reuters inputs
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