Elon Musk under-fire for withholding Staff bonuses

Elon Musk comes under Court’s firing squad over allegations of withholding staff bonuses of X employees following takeover of the microblogging platform.

A federal judge in the United States has mandated that X, formerly known as Twitter, must respond to a case initiated by employees who claim they were deprived of promised incentives following billionaire Elon Musk’s acquisition of the micro-blogging platform in October 2022.

The crux of the lawsuit revolves around allegations asserting that X failed to fulfill its commitment of providing yearly bonuses to employees post the acquisition.

Despite prior commitments made by the platform’s executives, the bonuses reportedly remained undelivered, leading to discontent among the workforce.

The legal action, initiated as a class-action lawsuit in June 2023, represents both present and former X employees who assert they did not receive their 2022 bonuses. Mark Schobinger, a former senior director of compensation at X, spearheaded the lawsuit on behalf of the affected employees.

US District Judge Vince Chhabria, in a recent ruling, affirmed that “Twitter’s offer to pay him a bonus in return became a binding contract under California law.”

The complaint alleges that in the lead-up to Musk’s acquisition of X, company leaders consistently assured employees that they would receive 2022 bonuses amounting to 50% of the target. These assurances allegedly persisted even after the completion of Musk’s acquisition.

The failure to honor these promises allegedly led to X not fulfilling the committed bonuses, prompting the legal complaint.

Schobinger, who departed from X in May, cited “Twitter’s reneging on various promises it had made to employees, including its failure to pay promised bonuses,” as stated in the complaint.