Twitter Lays Off Employees in Ghana, Only African Office

The majority of staff members, except one employee, from the Ghanaian Twitter office were recently laid off. The employees from the only African office were informed of the decision to let them go as the company continued its recently initiated goal to reduce the number of staff members. Multiple reports allege that the staffers found out about the termination of their employment via e-mail and had not been offered severance packages.

This is despite the local legislation in Ghana requiring severance to be paid as well as the employer giving three months’ notice of termination. “The company is reorganizing its operations as a result of a need to reduce costs,” Twitter’s director of people services in Ireland informed the Ghanaian staff in the email, as reported by CNN. “It is with regret that we’re writing to inform you that your employment is terminating as a result of this exercise.”

“It’s very insulting,” an anonymous Ghana employee told the BBC. “From the mail to the lack of next steps to the tone of the letter. Just everything. Ridiculously insulting,” the staff member continued. Twitter had roughly 20 employees in Ghana. The majority of them failed to log into their work emails and instead received notification of termination of employment in their personal email accounts.

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Twitter’s African office was opened to much excitement with the company looking to “be more immersed in the rich and vibrant communities that drive the conversations taking place every day across the African continent.” The company commended the country for “free speech, online freedom, and the Open Internet.”

Employees in Ghana started off working remotely for a year but eventually occupied office space on November 1st, only to be notified three days later about their termination. Their last day of employment will be December 4th.

Elon Musk completed the $44 billion purchase of Twitter and took ownership of the company on October 27th. As soon as he became the owner of Twitter, he began firing a large number of staff members across the world, with multiple media reports claiming he wanted to reduce the number of staff members by 50%. In India, Twitter is reported to have laid off 90% of its employees. Musk said he was forced to reduce staff numbers because Twitter was losing $4 million a day.