Elon Musk sure has a way of fucking over anyone who trusts him. A bunch of current and former employees, including some who agreed to stick around at Twitter with the explicit promise that they would receive the bonuses they were owed, are suing Twitter saying that those bonuses were never given (story found via Jon Brodkin over at Ars).
The plaintiff is Mark Schobinger, though they’re looking to make it a class action lawsuit (brought by Shannon Liss-Riordan, who is representing a ton of former Twitter employees in lawsuits and arbitration cases). Schobinger was “Senior Director, Compensation” from early 2019 through to last month. And, as someone who literally is in charge of compensation, he should know when he’s getting screwed out of promised compensation.
The lawsuit discusses Twitter’s bonus plan, which is normally paid out in March. And how Twitter execs promised employees that the bonus plan would continue after Musk took over. Now, you could say that’s all well and good, but once Musk owns the company, he can change the policy, but there are two problems with that. First, the purchase agreement that Elon Musk signed (but did not appear to read or understand), says that for at least the first year of ownership, Musk promises that “short- and long-term target incentive compensation” shall remain equivalent. Second, and more importantly, according to the complaint new management also promised that the bonuses would come.
Unfortunately, the complaint provides almost no details on this. If there were such clear statements from post-Musk Twitter, you’d think they’d be included. Instead, there’s just a barebones:
During the months leading up and following Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, Twitter repeatedly promised employees that they would receive their annual bonus under the company’s Bonus Plan and that the bonus for 2022 would be paid at fifty percent (50%) of the targeted bonus. Plaintiff and other employees accepted these offers by continuing to work for Twitter, rather than looking for and accepting other job opportunities. However, Twitter reneged on this agreement. It refused to pay annual bonuses to employees during the first quarter of 2023 (or thereafter), despite funding the Bonus Plan throughout 2022 and accounting for the payment of such annual bonuses
I imagine that if this lawsuit moves forward, more details will be added.
But, really, at this point does any of this surprise anyone?
