Judge allows age-discrimination lawsuit against Musk’s X to proceed

(Reuters) — A California federal judge has refused to dismiss a lawsuit accusing X, the social media service formerly called Twitter, of disproportionately laying off older workers when Elon Musk acquired the company last year.

U.S. District Judge Susan Illston on Tuesday said the plaintiff in the proposed class action, John Zeman, had provided enough evidence that the mass layoffs had a greater impact on older employees to continue pursuing the case.

Mr. Zeman, for example, claims X laid off 60% of workers who were 50 or older and nearly three-quarters of those who were over 60, compared with 54% of employees younger than 50.

Judge Illston ruled that the federal law banning workplace age bias allows plaintiffs to bring so-called “disparate impact” claims in a class action, an issue that has divided courts.

The judge dismissed a claim that X intentionally targeted older workers for layoffs but gave Mr. Zeman a month to file an amended lawsuit fleshing out that claim.

Shannon Liss-Riordan, Zeman’s lawyer, said, “This decision validates the arguments we are making that the discrimination claims can go forward.”

X did not respond to a request for comment.