Elon Musk has sacked Africans working in a Twitter office in Ghana one year after Twitter came to Africa.

The layoff also comes three days after Twitter workers in Ghana officially resumed office in Ghana. The Ghana office was opened in April 2021 to serve as the headquarters of the company in Africa.

It is, however, not clear how many workers were affected at the Africa Office. But, reports had it that the social media company planned to cut about 3,700 of its workforce. There are 7500 workers at Twitter.

On Friday, November 4, 2022, many workers in its US office needed help logging in to the firm’s systems after the layoffs were announced.

Most workers at the African office in Ghana worked from their homes and respective countries despite announcing the company’s official presence on the continent.

The workers formally resumed for the first time at the Ghana office since Twitter announced its presence in Africa.

A senior Partner Manager at Twitter Ghana and Nigeria announced this on the site and said the staff are resuming officially in the Ghana office for first time since the Twitter HQ’s office in Accra and ‘Tweeps in the region left their home desks and convened to work as OneTeam’.

Meanwhile, the affected staff took to Twitter to express mixed reactions.

One said; “Yep, the team is gone. The team that was researching and pushing for algorithmic transparency and algorithmic choice. The team that was studying algorithmic amplification. The team that was inventing and building ethical AI tooling and methodologies. All that is gone.”

Another staff said; “It’s official. It’s been an honour. Twitter Studio Managing Director Out. So much love to the team that rode the wave with me. Put up with my slack sappy love notes. Navigated big challenges + created award-winning work. Onward we go. Tweep fam 4 life.”

Workers begin lawsuit

According to reports, some of the affected employees had filed a lawsuit challenging the short notice given to them by Twitter before the layoffs.

The lawsuit is relying on the U.S. Federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, which restricts large companies from mounting mass layoffs without at least 60 days of advance notice.

The lawsuit asks the court to issue an order requiring Twitter to obey the WARN Act, and restricting the company from soliciting employees to sign documents that could give up their right to participate in litigation.

VeryWickedGoat:

I come in peace