Following further delays this week, some former Twitter employees finally received their official severance agreements on Saturday after months of anticipation, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter. However, the compensation is much less than what many expected, and the emails are landing in spam folders.
After Elon Musk assumed control of the social media giant in late October, about three-fourths of the company’s staff of 7,500 were let go in a series of cuts. Musk tweeted that those affected would receive "3 months of severance compensation." Previous Twitter leadership pledged to offer at least two months’ worth of severance pay as well as prorated performance bonuses, extended visa support, money for health care continuation, and the cash value of equity that would vest within three months, according to The Los Angeles Times.
However, as we previously reported, the agreements sent out today provide laid-off employees in the U.S. one month of base pay as severance. Those let go in November have been kept on the payroll and have been paid their regular salaries for the previous 60 days due to requirements of the federal WARN Act, which mandates companies give a 60-day notice before mass layoffs. Although those workers had been barred from the company's internal systems since November, they were formally let go on January 4 in accordance with the law.
What's more, employees will not be receiving their prorated performance bonuses, according to Twitter's severance material viewed by Fortune. Some employees received COBRA, which is money for health care continuation, a source said.
"I mean I expected him to f**k us (he did)," an impacted employee wrote to Fortune. "This is about 1/3 of what he contractually owes us based on his purchase agreement."
Although employees were given two months' pay during a "non-working" period to comply with the federal WARN Act, a lawyer for two class-action lawsuits against Twitter claimed that such money should not be included in the actual severance paid to employees, The Los Angeles Times reported.
Not all impacted employees received their agreements, multiple sources told Fortune. The agreements are being sent out by a third-party service provider called CPT Group, in lieu of in-house HR services. It's not yet clear why only some have received their agreements, but many have been finding the agreements in their spam folder, sources say.
Sources have pointed out some hiccups in the process, too. Those who received their agreements today were provided a unique login and directed to visit a domain, but that domain was set up roughly 5 hours before the severance agreements went out and doesn't have Twitter's name in it, causing many to believe it was a phishing attempt.
if you were wondering about the current state of twitter, many folks just received their separation agreements in their spam folders, pointing to a URL that was registered this morning from a vendor with a 1 star BBB rating. if still there, I would have reported this as phishing.
— parker lyons (@tweetsbyparker) January 7, 2023
After logging in and viewing their severance agreement, former employees have the option to sign or opt out of the agreement, according to a source familiar with the matter.
The website has an accompanying FAQ page stating that impacted employees can anticipate payment within 45 days of their signed agreement. A downloadable "Additional FAQs" document confirms that employees will not be receiving performance bonus payments, which were set to be paid out in March, and that there will be "no negotiation of the agreement or the severance amount listed."
As many as 5,500 laid-off Twitter employees were set to receive the official severance agreements, Fortune previously reported.
Fortune reached out to Twitter outside normal business hours but did not receive an immediate reply.
