More than a year after firing employees at its African headquarters, X, formerly known as Twitter, has now paid them back, according to the agency that represents the fired employees.
The majority had only been employed by the Accra, Ghanaian capital, company for a few months when they were let go by the social media giant in November 2022.
They had threatened to sue X in court if he didn’t give them the promised redundancy money.
The business has not provided a statement.
In the past, X has claimed to have paid its former workers in full.
After taking over the business in 2022, Elon Musk fired over 6,000 workers as part of a massive global employee purge. He claimed to be losing over $4 million (£3.5 million) every day.
Less than 20 Africans make up the contingent; they had just moved into X’s new Accra office after spending roughly eight months working from home during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The company that provides legal representation to the staff, Agency Seven Seven, stated that it has been successful in obtaining a redundancy settlement and reimbursement for the costs associated with sending foreign employees back home. However, the exact amount of the payout was not disclosed.
“They are very pleased to finally be able to get their due, put this behind them and look to the future,” Carla Olympio from Agency Seven Seven told the BBC.
Last year, sacked staffers told the BBC their treatment by X had harmed their mental health and their finances.
“It’s difficult when it’s the world’s richest man owing you money and closure,” one said.
They said they were initially told that, although their contracts were being terminated, they would be paid to work for one more month. But they were immediately locked out of their emails and no further salary payments were made.
The employees claimed that ever since, they had been embroiled in an irksome dispute over remuneration.
A portion of them relocated from nearby nations like Nigeria. They and their families were left stranded in Ghana as a result of their contract termination.
In a rare interview with the BBC in April of last year, Mr. Musk revealed that the number of employees at the social media behemoth had dropped from slightly under 8,000 to 1,500 since he had acquired the business.
Following the public release of information about his drastic staff reduction, Mr. Musk tweeted that laid-off workers received three months of severance pay.
However, the employees stationed in the Africa office claim not to have received this.
Negotiations with the fired Africa employees allegedly started only after the BBC broke the story, according to Agency Seven Seven.
A lawsuit was filed against X last year in a Californian court by former employees who claimed the company had failed to provide at least $500 million in promised severance benefits.
