Sacked Twitter employees in Ghana lastly get pay-off

X, previously often known as Twitter, has lastly paid off the employees it sacked in its African headquarters greater than a 12 months after they have been laid off, the company which represents them has stated.

Most had solely been within the job, primarily based in Ghana’s capital, Accra, for a number of months when the social media platform fired them in November 2022.

They had threatened to take X to courtroom for failing to pay the redundancy cash they stated they have been promised.

The firm has not commented.

X has beforehand stated that it had paid ex-employees in full.

Elon Musk, who took over the corporate in 2022, launched into an enormous international cull of workers, sacking greater than 6,000 individuals. He had stated he was shedding greater than $4m (£3.5m) a day.

The African contingent, who quantity fewer than 20, had solely simply moved into X’s new workplace in Accra, following about eight months of working from dwelling in the course of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Agency Seven Seven, the corporate offering authorized illustration to the employees, stated it had been profitable in its quest to get a redundancy settlement and repatriation bills for international employees, though it didn’t specify the quantity of the pay-out.

“They are very pleased to finally be able to get their due, put this behind them and look to the future,” Carla Olympio from Agency Seven Seven informed the BBC.

Last 12 months, sacked staffers informed the BBC their therapy by X had harmed their psychological well being and their funds.

“It’s difficult when it’s the world’s richest man owing you money and closure,” one stated.

They stated they have been initially informed that, though their contracts have been being terminated, they’d be paid to work for yet one more month. But they have been instantly locked out of their emails and no additional wage funds have been made.

Since then, the employees stated they’d been concerned in a irritating battle for compensation.

Some of them had moved from neighbouring international locations, corresponding to Nigeria. Their contract termination meant they have been left stranded in Ghana, together with their households.

In a uncommon interview final April, Mr Musk informed the BBC that the social media big had 1,500 workers, down from the slightly below 8,000 who have been employed on the time he purchased the corporate.

When the information of Mr Musk’s radical employees cull grew to become public, he tweeted that laid-off workers got three months’ severance pay.

But the employees primarily based within the Africa workplace say they didn’t obtain this.

According to Agency Seven Seven, X solely started negotiations with the sacked Africa employees after the BBC coated the story.

Last 12 months, X was hit by a lawsuit, filed by ex-employees in a California courtroom, for allegedly refusing to pay at the very least $500m in promised severance packages.