UK-based Twitter staff who were terminated following Elon Musk’s takeover of the company plan to seek an employment tribunal.

The Financial Times reports that a letter sent to Twitter by London-based law firm Winckworth Sherwood has accused the social media platform of carrying out “unlawful, unfair and completely unacceptable treatment” to former UK employees as part of a “sham redundancy process”.

Winckworth is understood to be representing 43 of around 180 UK employees who were let go by Twitter in November, just days after Musk concluded his $44 billion acquisition of the platform. It has been widely reported that Twitter has cut almost half of its 7,500-member workforce since then.

The FT also reports on a separate letter to Twitter from Mike Clancy, general secretary for UK trade union Prospect, in which he raised similar concerns as Winckworth and urged Twitter to “pause the redundancy process” and meet with the union.

Clancy also accused Twitter of “choosing not to honour the severance terms communicated and implemented prior to the acquisition” — despite a clause in the merger agreement that states employees will receive “no less favourable terms than they had prior to the takeover”.

Since Musk’s takeover of Twitter, the company has faced multiple issues, including advertisers cutting ties in light of the social media platform’s newly adopted approach to content moderation and reinstatement of numerous controversial accounts.

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