Tweet Farewell: Elon Musk begins mass layoffs at Twitter as staff sue Tesla CEO for not giving them enough notice

For many at Twitter, Friday is their final day working for the social media company as Elon Musk begins cutting down the workforce by up to half.

The Tesla CEO acquired the application in October for a reported $44 billion and has since spoken about making major changes that have not been welcomed by all.

Most of Elon Musk’s plans centre around driving down the costs of Twitter, with the latest being firing around 3,700 people from the company.

The breaking news comes after Elon sparked controversy by declaring users must pay an $8 fee to keep their blue tick - a symbol of verification on the platform, citing that he “has to pay the bills somehow” in response to author Stephen King, who questioned the move.

However, Elon’s recent decision to let go half of the workforce has been met by outrage with staff planning to sue their new 51-year-old boss due to the lack of notice given to them.

According to federal law in the USA, one must provide 60 calendar days of notice before beginning mass layoffs in line with the WARN Act - similar to the ones that Mr Musk is planning, while the new Twitter owner only informed staff by a memo on Thursday evening.

In the memo, it informed people that layoffs would begin first thing Friday morning with every staff member set to receive an email at 9am Pacific time declaring whether they still had a job or not.

The memo read: “If you are in an office or on your way to an office, please return home. In an effort to place Twitter on a healthy path, we will go through the difficult process of reducing our global workforce on Friday.

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“We recognize that this will impact a number of individuals who have made valuable contributions to Twitter, but this action is unfortunately necessary to ensure the company’s success moving forward,” the MailOnline reported.

At the end of 2021, Twitter’s global workforce stood at 7,500 employees.

Most of these employees will not only be met by an email this morning (4 November) but also find that all offices are temporarily sealed with staff badge access denied “to ensure the safety” of employees and Twitter data.

The suggested 3,700 people who are being laid off follow the five high-level executives who have all resigned in the past week.

Matching the bitter cold of November, staff and users of Twitter are all feeling icy towards the new owner.