X (formerly Twitter) demands money from fired employees

Twitter, the social networking site acquired by Elon Musk, is demanding the return of overpayments to at least six former employees it fired due to a currency conversion error.

Elon Musk threatens to take Australia's sacked Twitter staff to court over entitlements bungle

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/06/musks-x-demands-money-from-laid-off-employees-claims-they-were-overpaid/

According to a report from the Sydney Morning Herald, Australia's oldest newspaper, X made a mistake in converting US dollars to Australian dollars when paying employees, resulting in overpayments. X is demanding the return of the overpayments and is threatening to sue the former employees.

In an email that a former employee who was fired by X received from the company's Asia Pacific human resources department, it was stated that 'a large amount of overpayment was mistakenly made in January 2023.' The amount of the overpayment varies by employee, but is said to range from $1,500 to $70,000 (approximately 236,000 to 1.1 million yen) per employee.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald's investigation, none of the former employees have yet returned the overpayments to Twitter at the time of writing. When the Sydney Morning Herald contacted Twitter, it was revealed that the overpayments were related to 'deferred cash compensation' in the form of employee shares issued to the former employees when they joined Twitter at the time. These shares were valued at $54.20 per share, the same price that Musk paid when he acquired Twitter in 2022.

X reportedly made currency conversion errors when paying share entitlements to its fired employees, with 'one report suggesting X paid share entitlements at 2.5 times the value of the shares at the time,' according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

Employment law expert Hayden Stevens argues that while X's former employees may be forced to pay back the money, they should first 'force X to clearly explain how the mistake was made and provide supporting documentation.' If there was a genuine mistake, he says, Australian employment law 'would normally require you to pay back the money.'

In addition, a former employee has filed a lawsuit against X, claiming that he had not received his severance pay.

Former Twitter executives sue X and Elon Musk for unpaid severance pay of over 19 billion yen - GIGAZINE