A California federal judge has refused to dismiss a lawsuit accusing X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, of disproportionately laying off older workers when Elon Musk acquired the company last year.
US District Judge Susan Illston said on Tuesday the plaintiff in the proposed class action, John Zeman, had provided enough evidence that the mass layoffs had a greater impact on older employees to continue pursuing the case.
Zeman, for example, claimed X laid off 60 percent of workers who were 50 or older and nearly three-quarters of those who were older than 60, compared with 54 percent of employees younger than 50.
Illston ruled that the United States federal law banning workplace age bias allows plaintiffs to bring so-called “disparate impact” claims in a class action, an issue that has divided courts.
The judge dismissed a claim that X intentionally targeted older workers for layoffs, but gave Zeman a month to file an amended lawsuit fleshing out that claim.
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Shannon Liss-Riordan, Zeman’s lawyer, said, “This decision validates the arguments we are making that the discrimination claims can go forward.”
Source: Aljazeera.com
