Twitter employees in Ghana who were fired have finally received their payment

According to a recent announcement from the agency representing them, X, previously known as Twitter, has finally compensated the staff it laid off at its African headquarters over a year ago. In November 2022, the company fired these employees in Ghana's capital, Accra, after they had been on the job for only a few months. The sacked staff had threatened to take legal action against X for failing to provide the promised redundancy payments. The company has chosen not to comment on the matter, but it has previously claimed to have paid its ex-employees in full. Elon Musk, who took control of X in 2022, initiated a massive global downsizing by laying off over 6,000 individuals, citing daily losses of more than $4 million. The African workforce, comprising fewer than 20 employees, had recently relocated to X's new office in Accra following approximately eight months of remote work during the Covid-19 pandemic. Agency Seven Seven, which provided legal representation to the staff, stated that it succeeded in obtaining redundancy settlements and repatriation expenses for foreign personnel without disclosing the payout amount. Carla Olympio from Agency Seven Seven expressed the staff's satisfaction in finally receiving their overdue compensation and being able to move forward. Last year, the sacked employees told the BBC that X's treatment had adversely affected their mental health and finances. They claimed to have initially been informed that they would receive one more month of pay despite the termination of their contracts. However, they were immediately locked out of their emails, and no further salary payments were made. Since then, the staff had been engaged in a frustrating battle for compensation. Some employees had relocated from neighboring countries like Nigeria, leaving them and their families stranded in Ghana due to the termination of their contracts. In a rare interview last April, Mr. Musk stated that X had 1,500 employees, a significant decrease from the nearly 8,000 employees at the time he acquired the company. When news of Mr. Musk's extensive staff reduction became public, he tweeted that laid-off workers would receive three months' severance pay. However, the Africa-based staff claimed they did not receive this compensation. According to Agency Seven Seven, negotiations between X and the sacked African staff only commenced after the BBC reported on the story. X was also confronted with a lawsuit last year as former employees in California accused the company of withholding at least $500 million in promised severance packages.