Twitter Is Refusing to Pay Severance, Laid-Off Workers in Ghana Say

Former Twitter workers in Africa say they are still waiting to receive the severance pay they say they were promised, seven months after they were laid off.

In late May, Twitter agreed to pay the Ghana-based employees of Twitter Africa three months severance after they were laid off following a series of massive cost-cutting measures implemented by new CEO Elon Musk.  Under Ghanaian law, workers must be paid three months worth of pay before they are made redundant.

But the former employees say they haven’t received any money, and that they’ve been “ghosted” by Twitter. 

“Unfortunately, it appears that after having unethically implemented their terminations in violation of their own promises and Ghana’s laws, dragging the negotiation process out for over half a year, now that we have come to the point of almost settlement, there has been complete silence from them for several weeks,” Carla Olympio, the attorney representing the former Twitter Africa staff, told CNN. 

Twitter opened a new regional headquarters in Ghana’s capital Accra in 2021, its first and only permanent office on the continent. The opening was hailed by Ghana’s president, Nana Akufo-Addo, as the “start of a beautiful partnership between Twitter and Ghana." 

“We must be more immersed in the rich and vibrant communities that drive the conversations taking place every day across the African continent,” Twitter said at the time in its own statement. 

Staff at Twitter Africa are believed to be the only former Twitter employees yet to receive their severance payments. 

Contacted for a response for this story, Twitter’s press office replied with a poop emoji – as all requests for comment to Twitter have done so since March.