Twitter’s former head of human resources has accused the company of failing to pay nearly $500m (£385m) in severance pay owed to the company’s former employees.
Courtney McMillian, who was the former “Head of Total Rewards” for the social networking site, made the claim in a class action lawsuit.
The complaint says that Twitter owner Elon Musk knew about the termination plan before he fired thousands of employees.
But she says he refrained from “calculating”.
It is the latest of several lawsuits against the company over mass firings that followed Mr Musk’s $44bn (£34bn) purchase of Twitter last year.
According to the lawsuit, the layoffs ultimately affected nearly 6,000 people.
Under Twitter’s severance plan, employees were to receive a base salary of at least two months in severance pay and a cash contribution to health insurance, among other benefits, according to the complaint filed in San Francisco federal court.
She says those in senior positions, including Ms. McMillian, were entitled to six months’ base salary in severance pay, plus one week’s pay for each full year of experience.
But the employees received “a maximum” of three months’ salary after being fired. This included a month of termination, as well as two months’ pay for complying with a US law intended to provide workers with notice of termination, according to the complaint.
This was “a small part” of the $500 million the employees are owed, she says.
Twitter, which no longer has a public relations department, did not comment.
After a round of mass layoffs, Musk said in November that employees would get three months of pay, “50% more than legally required.”
The complaint accused Musk of misleading employees about whether the company would stick to the plan, leading some to stay at the company longer than they otherwise would have.
“Musk initially represented to staff that under his leadership Twitter would continue to adhere to its severance plan,” said Kate Moeting, the attorney from Sanford Heisler Sharp representing Ms. McMillian.
She added, “It is clear that he made these promises knowing that they were necessary to prevent mass resignations that would have threatened the viability of integration and the vitality of Twitter itself.”