San Francisco officers are investigating if Elon Musk’s “Twitter Resort” plan broke legal guidelines
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — San Francisco officials are investigating Twitter after six former employees allege that owner Elon Musk’s leadership…
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — San Francisco officials are investigating Twitter after six former employees allege that owner Elon Musk’s management team broke laws by turning the company’s headquarters into a “Twitter hotel” for workers who would be pushed to stay up late to transform the social media platform.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that city officials are launching their latest investigation into the company Musk acquired late last year.
This comes after the former employees, including a former vice president of real estate, claimed in a lawsuit filed in a Delaware federal court that Twitter failed to pay them the promised severance package. Twitter wants to dismiss the case.
They also allege that Musk’s team ordered numerous changes to the company’s headquarters in a 1930s Art Deco building in downtown San Francisco that violated building codes. According to the lawsuit, those changes included disabling lights and adding locks that would not open in an emergency.
One of the plaintiffs is Tracy Hawkins, a former vice president of real estate and employment at Twitter, who was responsible for managing the company’s physical offices and leases. The lawsuit states that Hawkins initially did not oppose Musk’s acquisition but was “forced to resign when Elon Musk and his transition team insisted that she violated her professional ethics by inducing Twitter to intentionally violate his leases and other contracts.” The lawsuit alleges that Musk refused to pay rent on the building.
This isn’t the first time San Francisco officials have fallen out with Musk, who bought Twitter for $44 billion in October and laid off much of its workforce by converting part of the company’s headquarters into bedrooms.
Earlier this year, San Francisco building inspectors gave Twitter’s contractor two weeks to file a revised zoning permit if the company wanted to continue using two conference rooms as bedrooms.
The city launched an investigation in December after Forbes reported on the beds, prompting owner Musk to take action against San Francisco Mayor London Breed, despite there being no evidence she was involved in the inspection.
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