Bosses at X have finally paid off the staff it sacked in its African headquarters.
Most had only been in the job — based in Ghana’s capital, Accra — for a few months when the social media platform fired them in November 2022, and now the agency representing them has said they have been compensated.
The workers had threatened to take X, rebranded from Twitter after Tesla billionaire Elon Musk’s $44 billion takeover of the platform, to court for failing to pay the redundancy money they said they were promised.
The company has not commented, but X has previously said that it had paid the ex-employees in full.
Agency Seven Seven, which was providing legal representation to the staff, did not specify the amount of the payout.
“They are very pleased to finally be able to get their due, put this behind them and look to the future,” Carla Olympio from the firm told the BBC. “It’s difficult when it’s the world’s richest man owing you money and closure.”
The sacked staffers had told the BBC their treatment by X had harmed their mental health and their finances.
Musk embarked on a massive global cull of employees after he took over Twitter in 2022, sacking more than 6,000 people. He admitted he was losing more than $4 million a day after the purchase.
The African staff, who numbered fewer than 20, had just moved into X’s new office in Accra, following about eight months of working from home during the Covid pandemic.
The staff said they were initially told that, although their contracts were being terminated, they would be paid to work for one more month. However, they were then locked out of their emails and no further salary payments were made.
Some of them had moved from neighboring countries, such as Nigeria, for the job with Twitter.
Musk had said sacked employees were given three months’ severance pay, but the Africa-based staff said they never received the money.
