A former Twitter employee has filed a lawsuit against the company and Elon Musk, claiming that she was promised increased pay and a leadership position to prevent her from accepting a job at another company, but that those promises were never kept and that Twitter eventually terminated her from her position.
Plaintiff Stacey Rapp filed suit in San Francisco County Superior Court against X Corp., Twitter Inc., Space Exploration Technologies Corp., doing business as SpaceX, Elon Musk, and several unnamed individuals, alleging breach of contract, breach of covenant of good faith and fair dealing, intentional misrepresentation, false promises, discrimination, harassment, failure to prevent discrimination and harassment and various violations of California labor laws including retaliation, wrongful termination, failure to pay overtime, failure to pay wages, failure to provide accurate wage statements and failure to pay wages owed upon termination.
According to the lawsuit, Rapp allegedly was hired by Twitter to work as an IT Apps Engineering Manager starting February 22, 2021. She states that she was initially hired with an initial salary of $205,000 and also received $350,000 in shares of company stock. By March 2022, her annual salary allegedly had increased to $212,000 based on positive performance.
The lawsuit states that beginning in April 2022, Elon Musk and Twitter allegedly began a tumultuous negotiation process for Musk to acquire Twitter. Rapp states that in July, she was recruited by another company, and accepted the offer based on Twitter's uncertain future at the time and the prospect of working with former colleagues.
Rapp claims that when she told her supervisors of her intention to leave the company, they informed her that they would make her a counteroffer consisting of significantly increased pay and benefits, including a position with company leadership, to incentivize her not to leave. According to Rapp, on Aug. 3, 2022, she accepted an offer to increase her salary to $280,000, plus a 25% bonus and additional shares of company stock. Following her acceptance of Twitter's offer, she informed the other company of her decision to stay at Twitter.
According to Rapp, on Aug. 30, she met with Human Resources, who informed her that she would be reporting to a new supervisor and that the IT Department would be laying off a significant number of its staff. Rapp claims that she never received the increased pay and benefits promised to her for staying at Twitter and that her new supervisor was given a leadership role over her despite being far less qualified.
She adds that her new supervisor failed to understand the basic procedures and concepts of the position and would often subject her to condescension and harassment. Rapp says that when she asked her supervisor about her missing promotion package on Sept. 7, he claimed to know nothing about it and said that she was "overpaid" and undeserving of a promotion. Rapp claims that as the supervisor struggled to manage his duties, Rapp was burdened with extra responsibilities to make up for his mismanagement. Rapp claims that she continued to bring up the issue of her missing wages, but Twitter only increased her annual compensation to $226,000, falling far short of earlier promises.
In October 2022, Rapp complained about the lack of female leadership at Twitter and the significant disparity between her promised compensation and what was offered. Twitter offered an additional retention bonus and more shares of company stock, but Rapp says her compensation was still substantially less than originally promised. It had been more than two months since she had received the other employment offer, though, so Rapp says she felt like she had no choice but to continue working for Twitter. Later that month, Musk's acquisition of Twitter was complete, and the company proceeded to lay off approximately half of its workforce of 7,500 employees. Rapp claims that through February 2023, many women in leadership roles allegedly were terminated while less qualified male employees allegedly were promoted to higher positions, and that eventually she was the only woman left in a leadership role in IT operations.
In February, Twitter was down to approximately 1,700 employees, and Musk made a company announcement that remaining employees would receive a substantial bonus package. Rapp says that she continued to remain at the company based on promises made by Musk. Despite the promises, Rapp claims that in March, the company demoted her and placed her under a less-qualified male supervisor, while promoting a male coworker instead. Rapp adds that the compensation packages allegedly promised by Musk were postponed. Later in March, Twitter terminated Rapp's employment, claiming that her position had been eliminated. She alleges that she was not provided proper notice, as required by the WARN Act. Rapp believes that she was paid less than her male coworkers for similar work and that her complaints were not properly investigated.
Rapp is seeking monetary damages, plus interest, court costs, attorney fees, and any other relief the court deems proper. Additionally, she is requesting the court issue an order requiring the defendants to conduct training for all employees of the requirements of the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA). She is represented in this case by attorneys with The Law Offices of Traci M. Hinden and Quintana Hanafi LLP, both of San Francisco.
Superior Court of California of the County of San Francisco case number CGC-23-609338