Elon Musk Could Be Fined Half a Million Dollars Every Day Over Twitter Cull

Twitter is being sued over the mass layoffs ordered by new owner Elon Musk, as employees are reportedly being fired with less notice than required by California law.

On Friday, only a week after Musk has officially taken over the company, Twitter began what the new owner described as the layoff of thousands of employees, about half of Twitter's entire 7,500-person workforce.

"In an effort to place Twitter on a healthy path, we will go through the difficult process of reducing our global workforce," an email to Twitter employees read. "We recognize that this will impact a number of individuals who have made valuable contributions to Twitter, but this action is unfortunately necessary to ensure the company's success moving forward."

Many employees reported finding out they were going to be fired with an email on Friday, with no previous notice besides the unconfirmed rumors circulating around Musk's plans for the company before he officially became its owner. They were also told not to come into the office on Friday, which is located in San Francisco.

California's Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification "WARN" act requires companies to give employees at least 60 days of notice before a mass layoff or a plant closure.

Lawyer Lisa Bloomposted a lengthy Twitter thread on Thursday night addressed to the social media site's employees as word of the mass layoffs spread.

"A layoff of 50+ employees within a 30 day period qualifies. I know you didn't get that notice," Bloom wrote on Twitter.

"This WARN law applies to all California employers of 75+ employees, which obviously includes Twitter with its thousands of employees," she said in a follow-up tweet. "Purpose of the law is to give laid off employees time to figure out how to handle this disruption. And Elon completely ignores it."

"Employers like Twitter who violate the WARN Act face civil penalties of $500/day for each violation. With thousands of employees, this could be significant, though maybe not to Elon," Bloom tweeted.

Bloom told Newsweek that it's "very likely" that she'll file a class-action lawsuit against Twitter, adding Musk's chances of walking away from these mass layoffs without consequences are "slim to nil. The law applies even to the world's richest man."

Attorney Shannon Liss-Riordan filed a class-action lawsuit on Thursday in San Francisco federal court against Twitter. Liss-Riordan previously sued Musk's company Tesla for laying off some 10 percent of its workforce.

If the San Francisco court was to find Musk's Twitter guilty, the laid-off Twitter employees would receive back pay at the employee's final rate or 3-year average of compensation, "whichever is higher," Bloom wrote in her Twitter thread.

According to Bloom, Twitter would also be liable for workers' medical expenses that would have been covered under an employee benefit plan, as well as attorneys' fees.

"This flagrant violation of workers rights is outrageous. Who's in for a class action? LET'S DO THIS," she tweeted.

Bloom also suggested that the mass layoff was done "so hastily" that Twitter likely didn't pay attention to what employees were being fired, possibly incurring problems with California's anti-discrimination laws.

Newsweek reached out to Shannon Liss-Riordan and Twitter for comment.