Elon Musk beats one lawsuit that sought severance for laid-off Twitter employees

Enlarge / An X sign at company headquarters in San Francisco. (credit: Getty Images | Bloomberg)

A federal judge yesterday granted Elon Musk’s motion to dismiss a class-action complaint alleging that laid-off Twitter employees were wrongfully denied the severance they were entitled to under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).

The employees may be able to latch onto another lawsuit against Twitter that alleges different severance-related violations, but their claim under ERISA was denied by US District Judge Trina Thompson in the Northern District of California.

“Plaintiffs are not without recourse,” Thompson wrote, noting that they may benefit from similar cases ongoing against the Musk-owned firm. “Indeed, there are other cases brought against Twitter for the failure to pay wages or provide employee severance benefits during the same or overlapping period that Plaintiffs allege Defendants denied them and the putative class sufficient severance benefits under the severance plan at issue here.”