Elon Musk, X reach settlement with sacked Twitter employees

Billionaire Elon Musk and US social media company X have reached a tentative settlement of $500 million in severance pay with former employees of Twitter, as the platform used to be known.

The deal was reported in a court filing on Wednesday requesting that a US appeals court in San Francisco postpone an upcoming hearing to allow time to settle the paperwork, according to the BBC.

"The parties have reached a settlement agreement in principle and began negotiating the terms of a long form settlement agreement," according to court documents filed by both sides.

The lawsuit, led by former Twitter employee Courtney McMillian, says about 6,000 people were wrongly denied benefits under the company's severance plan.

The plaintiffs argued that the firm had failed to provide adequate severance pay, reportedly as high as six months' worth of salaries, among other terms.

Details of the agreement are not yet public and will require the courts' approval.

Some 6,000 employees were sacked following Musk's acquisition of the company in 2022, which prompted some to sue the company over their terminations and severance packages.

The platform changed its name to X in 2023 and took a sharp turn from banning controversial right-wing accounts to welcoming them, resulting in the exodus of many users.