Elon Musk and X formerly known as Twitter have agreed to pay a fair settlement to the former employees in its African office in Ghana after they were laid off in November 2022. This is coming exactly seven months after ex-employees of the social media company filed a $500 million settlement lawsuit against the company in a California court.

Technext reported earlier that the former employees of Twitter Africa, who were laid off as part of a global cost-cutting measure following Elon Musk’s acquisition of the company, have not received any severance pay for more than 14 months since leaving the company, according to multiple sources interviewed by CNN.

An advisory agency, Agency Seven Seven negotiating on behalf of embattled X former staff said it has successfully secured a redundancy settlement for them. According to a press release issued by Agency Seven Seven:

“Agency Seven Seven has successfully led negotiations on behalf of former staff members of Twitter Ghana Ltd in their quest to get a fair settlement and repatriation expenses for foreign staff”

“The team, who were initially laid off without any severance in November 2022 subsequent to the sale of Twitter Inc to Mr. Elon Musk, were seeking to enforce their rights under the redundancy provisions of Ghana’s Labour Act, 2003 (Act 651). Section 65 of the Labour Act require employers to file a notice with the Chief Labour Officer of Ghana and then to engage in settlement negotiations with affected staff before implementing a redundancy exercise.”

Elon Musk’s massive lay-off on X

The billionaire, Elon Musk acquired Twitter Inc in 2022 and subsequently embarked on a massive layoff of workers worldwide, sacking over 6,000 employees. The new owner, a the time, noted that he was losing more than $4 million a day.

In 2021, Twitter which has since been renamed and whose mission was to serve public conversation deemed it important to establish its Africa headquarters in Ghana.

However, during Elon Musk’s massive lay-off, the African headquarters with no less than 20 staff moved into the company’s new office in Accra following about eight months of working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic.

While protesting their unpaid settlement, the affected employees in Africa claimed that staff in other countries had received the settlement while those in its Africa office were left stranded.. One of the affected employees told CNN, “They literally ghosted us.”

When mounting pressure on the company to respond, the affected employees said the management only sent an automated response in the form of a poop emoji.

Last year, it was hit by a lawsuit, filed by ex-employees in a California court, for allegedly refusing to pay at least $500m in promised severance packages.