Ghanaians Sacked by Twitter Reportedly Demand Labor Law Rights

Twitter fired all but one of its employees in Ghana earlier this month. The move came after Elon Mask completed his takeover of the company and initiated a downsizing campaign.

Fired Twitter employees in Ghana have reportedly hired a lawyer and sent a letter to the company demanding that it comply with local labor laws.

Among the group's demands are the provision of three-months severance pay and other payments comparable to those received by Twitter employees worldwide.

The dismissed employees are also demanding repatriation expenses for non-Ghanaian citizens, vesting of stock options granted in their contracts, and the continuation of healthcare coverage that was provided to employees in other countries.

“It is clear that Twitter, Inc. under Mr. Elon Musk is either deliberately or recklessly flouting the laws of Ghana, is operating in bad faith and in a manner that seeks to silence and intimidate former employees into accepting any terms unilaterally thrown at them,” the employees stated in the letter, as quoted by the media.

The employees also asked Ghana's government to compel Twitter to “adhere to the laws of Ghana on redundancy and offer the employees a fair and just negotiation and redundancy pay."

“The employees are distressed, humiliated, and intimidated by this turn of events. There are non-Ghanaian employees, some with young families, who moved here to take up jobs and have now been left unceremoniously in the lurch, with no provision for repatriation expenses and no way to communicate with Twitter, Inc. and discuss or plead their case,” the appeal to Ghana’s chief labor officer read.

Just a week after Musk's takeover, Twitter fired almost all its employees in Ghana, leaving only one. However, the dismissed staff didn't get any severance pay guaranteed by Ghana’s labor laws and Twitter's employment contracts. Moreover, the Ghanaian staff complained that they weren't informed about the situation in time, unlike employees in the United States and Europe.

After taking over the company, Musk also "temporarily" dismissed the company's board of directors in the US, becoming its sole CEO. In an effort to put Twitter "on a healthy path" and assure the company's "success moving ahead," Musk began firing employees worldwide in November, just over a week after taking charge. It was also reported that only about 2,700 employees out of about 7,500 retained their jobs.

Musk, who also owns SpaceX and Tesla, first mentioned buying Twitter in April, saying he wanted to buy the company because it could champion "free speech". The businessman’s $44 billion acquisition of Twitter was completed at the end of October.

Twitter Inc., a US-base company, was established in 2006. The company's primary product is a social network for sending and receiving text messages.