Twitter’s ex-staff in Africa lament unpaid severance

By Abubakar Yunusa Abuja

Twitter’s former employees in Africa say they have not received their severance pay despite being laid off seven months ago.

A source confirmed the development to Nigeria online newspaper on Monday.

Last year, Elon Musk, the billionaire businessman, acquired the microblogging platform and began a series of layoffs which affected thousands of workers.

In November 2022, Twitter laid off many of its employees in Africa — just days after the company opened a physical office in Accra, capital of Ghana.

The source said the team had, in May 2023, accepted Twitter’s offer to pay them three months worth of severance.

The source said the team agreed to accept the cost of repatriating foreign staff and legal expenses incurred during negotiations with the company.

According to the source, the team reluctantly agreed to the severance package without benefits even though it was less than what their colleagues elsewhere received.

The source, however, lamented that the employees have not received the money or any further communication in the last two months.

CNN reported that Carla Olympio, an attorney representing the former employees, said the last communication from Twitter or its lawyers was in May, shortly after settlement was agreed.

Speaking to the news channel, a former Twitter Africa employee, said: “They literally ghosted us. Although Twitter has eventually settled former staff in other locations, Africa staff have still been left in the lurch despite us eventually agreeing to specific negotiated terms.”

“Twitter was non-responsive until we agreed to the three months because we were all so stressed and exhausted and tired of the uncertainty, reluctant to take on the extra burdens of a court case so we felt we had no choice but to settle,” another former employee told CNN.