Age discrimination lawsuit against Elon Musk’s X may continue

A California federal judge has declined to dismiss a lawsuit accusing X, the social media service formerly known as Twitter, of firing a disproportionate number of older workers when Elon Musk acquired the company last year.

U.S. District Judge Susan Illston said Tuesday plaintiff in the proposed class action lawsuit, John Zeman, has presented enough evidence that the mass layoffs are having a greater impact on older workers to pursue the case.

For example, Zeman claims that

Illston ruled that the federal law prohibiting age bias in the workplace allows plaintiffs to file “disparate impact” claims in a class action, an issue that has divided the courts.

The judge dismissed a claim that

Zeman’s attorney, Shannon Liss-Riordan, said: “This decision vindicates the arguments we are making to allow the discrimination claims to proceed.”

X did not respond to a request for comment.

The lawsuit is one of about a dozen with which

These cases include various allegations, including that

At least two lawsuits allege that the company owes its former employees at least $500 million in severance pay. Twitter has denied any wrongdoing in these cases.

Liss-Riordan is also representing approximately 2,000 former Twitter employees who have filed similar legal claims against the company in arbitration.