Twitter NYC cleansing employees sue over firings they are saying spoiled ‘Christmas holidays’

NEW YORK (AP) — Eleven former Twitter cleaners at the New York offices sued the company on Tuesday, saying they are owed hundreds of thousands of dollars in back payments and damages after their sudden dismissal in December.

The lawsuit in Manhattan federal court alleged that the company violated New York City rules that protect unionized workers from being replaced by workers from another cleaning company for at least three months. This company was also sued.

The layoffs came just days after four dozen janitors at Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters lost their jobs in early December. California workers protested outside their former workplace after being fired. They claimed that state and local laws required new contractors to keep workers for at least 60 days.

Twitter returned an email request for comment on Tuesday with an automatic reply and no comment.

In their lawsuit, the former Twitter cleaners in New York sought an immediate court order reinstating them for at least 90 days, along with back wages and damages.

The lawsuit says the workers were laid off on December 19, leaving them “unemployed on the eve of the Christmas holidays.”

“As a result of Twitter’s actions, the plaintiffs were unemployed as of Christmas Eve, forcing several of them to cancel or severely curtail their holiday celebrations,” the lawsuit reads.

Eight of the 11 full-time employees, who earned up to $31 an hour, worked there as of 2015. Their jobs included sweeping and mopping floors, cleaning and disinfecting kitchens and common areas, and emptying and removing trash and recycling other cleaning duties .

The workers were affiliated with Chapter 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union, which represents more than 20,000 cleaners in around 800 buildings in New York City.