Musk to be deposed in Twitter layoffs lawsuit

Elon Musk is set to be deposed on Monday as the first arbitration hearings get underway involving thousands of former Twitter employees who say they were cheated out of severance pay when the billionaire bought the social media company in October 2022.

The law firm of Lichten & Liss-Riordan sent an email to the former Twitter employees who are participating in a class action lawsuit, asking for ideas for questions to ask Musk in the deposition. The deposition will be in-person and last for seven hours, according to the email.

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The company formerly known as Twitter, which Musk has since renamed X, has been accused in multiple suits of numerous labor and workplace violations, including failing to pay severance to thousands of workers fired after Musk's $44 billion acquisition of the social media platform. The law firm is representing almost 2,000 former Twitter employees in individual arbitrations as well as more than a dozen class action lawsuits in court. 

A spokesperson for X declined to comment. Shannon Liss-Riordan, a partner at the firm, and Elon Musk did not immediately respond to requests for comment. 

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A San Francisco federal judge ruled last year that workers who filed one of the earliest challenges to Twitter over severance pay were obligated under their contracts to go through arbitration, in which private judges resolve disputes in closed-door hearings.