US Court Rules Meta’s Mass Layoff Season In 2022 As Illegal With Violation Of Employee Rights In Separation Agreements
Meta seems to be in hot waters again after an American court ruling confirmed how the company’s decision to carry out a massive layoff season in 2022 was illegal.
It highlighted how the documents regarding the separation of the worker from the firm were unlawful and unjustified, clearly demarcating a violation of employee rights.
The NLRB administrative law judge made the judgment and proceeded to roll out the ruling last week.
To be more specific, the ruling spoke about how the clauses mentioned in the documents such as non-disparagement and confidentiality were a clear violation of the rights they hold in Section 7. The clauses caused interference and restrained many from rights they were entitled to which is a serious offense.
Therefore, the judge stated how Meta was with immediate effect making amendments to the type of language used and going about informing all those impacted by this ordeal via notices at the workplace. This would include a further clarification of the rights that such employees have.
The latest lawsuit arises from the huge layoff spree that Meta engaged in August of 2022 and February of 2023. A whopping 7500 workers were provided with a separation agreement. Out of those who received them, 96% signed it.
The company made reports about how it was offering a wide number of benefits and greater severance pay for the workers to bid farewell to their rights of discussing termination and employment in public.
If the NLRB decision is indeed upheld, we might soon see serious changes taking center stage when severance agreements are sought throughout various industries in the US. Hence, as you can see, it could be a massive game changer.
Just in 2022, a whopping 165k job layoffs were seen in the tech world alone. Meanwhile, this went up to 263k in the year after that, followed by 107K in this year so far.
The judge says that the agreements that Meta launched were a clear violation of the new standards as well. This means all separation agreements that are not up to date or feature the right wordings instead of the law must be amended to avoid penalization.
Tech giant Meta is yet to comment on the matter but from what we can confirm, it’s definitely seems like no way out.
Image: DIW-Aigen
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