Cape Town - Laid-off employees at American microblogging site Twitter’s Ghana office are alleging that the social media company is trying to silence and intimidate them, after they were relieved from their duties earlier this month.
Citing a CNN report, the Ghana team has reportedly hired a legal representative and sent a letter to the company demanding it comply with the West African nation’s labour laws, provide them with additional severance pay and other relevant benefits, in line with what other Twitter employees will receive.
According to CNN, the fired staff have also petitioned the Ghanaian government to compel Twitter to “adhere to the laws of Ghana on redundancy and offer the employees a fair and just negotiation and redundancy pay,” according to a letter to the country’s chief labour officer obtained by CNN.
EXCLUSIVE: Fired Twitter Africa employees are standing up to Elon Musk, have hired a lawyer & are demanding what they're owed.
— Larry Madowo (@LarryMadowo) November 21, 2022
The Ghana team was only offered 'vague' severance pay after CNN reported on their plight. They rejected it
More: https://t.co/pmQhxoA84R pic.twitter.com/PQI1skrv3L
Twitter Ghana’s official Twitter handle last tweeted on October 26. The account, which has over 100k followers, last tweeted about the National Science and Maths Quiz, which is an annual science and maths content-based national level quiz competition for senior high schools in Ghana.
Twitter boss Elon Musk reportedly relieved staff of their duties at its Ghana offices, which is the company’s only African office, barely a day after staff returned to the office after working remotely for almost a year, citing a CNN report.
South African-born billionaire Musk bought the microblogging and social networking service in October for a whopping $44 billion (about R760bn) and announced that the company would begin mass lay-offs at Twitter, the company said in an email to staff.
In 2021, the company said it identified Ghana as a country as a champion for democracy, adding that the west African country was a supporter of free speech, online freedom, and the Open Internet, of which Twitter is also an advocate, it said in a statement announcing that its Africa office would be located in Ghana.
IOL