A judge has barred a class-action lawsuit against Twitter based on severance pay

The decision requires laid-off employees to pursue their claims in individual arbitration.

Twitter obtained a judgement that requires a group of laid-off employees who are suing the firm over their severance payouts to pursue their claims in individual arbitration rather than via a class-action lawsuit.

Hundreds of employees who were fired off after Elon Musk purchased the social networking business in October have already filed arbitration claims.

A federal court in San Francisco decided on Friday that five workers who filed a lawsuit in early November are required under their contracts to go through arbitration, in which private judges resolve disagreements in closed-door proceedings. US District Judge James Donato stated that he will decide how to handle complaints from workers who choose not to participate in the arbitration arrangement later.

According to an attorney who has filed 500 such claims on behalf of employees, the procedure may be costly for Twitter, which she accuses of shortchanging employees on severance pay.

“Insisting that workers file claims one by one has backfired for many companies our firm has taken on,” lawyer Shannon Liss-Riordan said in a statement this week. “These companies think they can make employees just go away and not assert their rights by using arbitration clauses, but we have made them sorry about what they wished for.”