In an aerial view, a revised company sign is posted on the exterior of the Twitter headquarters in San Francisco on April 10, 2023.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Elon Musk and X Corp — the Musk-backed parent company of social media platform Twitter — face an investigation into building code violations at Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters on Market Street, according to online public records With the county’s building inspection department.
investigation, which was earlier reported by San Francisco ChronicleThat followed a lawsuit filed May 16 in a Delaware court by six former Twitter employees who accused Musk’s “transition team” of knowingly and repeatedly ordering them to break local and federal laws, including making unsafe modifications to the company’s office space.
The lawsuit alleges that under Musk’s management, X Corp instructed employees to turn San Francisco headquarters rooms into “hotel rooms” while lying to inspectors and their landlord that they had some comfortable furniture. with “temporary resting places” and no substantial or structural changes.
The lawsuit states that an employee was asked to install locks on the doors of unauthorized “hotel rooms” that did not meet California code, which requires “locks that activate the building’s fire suppression system.” automatically shuts off.”
The ex-Twitter employee said in the complaint that Musk’s transition team repeatedly told him “compliant locks were too expensive” and instead instructed him to “immediately install cheaper locks that did not conform to life safety and egress codes.” “
The employee quit rather than break that law, his lawyers noted in the lawsuit.
The complaint also alleges that Musk-led Twitter failed to pay employees severance, back pay and benefits they were due, and discriminated against some senior employees on the basis of age, gender and sexual orientation. did when he decided to end them.
Additionally, the lawsuit states that Musk and a member of his transition team, Boring Company executive Steve Davis, ordered employees involved in the management of the real estate to reduce costs by $500 million as quickly as possible. In a drive to cut costs, the Musk transition team asked employees to refuse to pay landlords who were owed rent by the company.
When told about the risks of termination fees for some leases, Davis told senior Twitter employees, “Well, we won’t pay them. We just won’t pay landlords,” and added, “We just Won’t pay rent,” the complaint says.
Meanwhile, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez is actively pushing Musk to move the Twitter headquarters under his jurisdiction. on Friday, he wrote on twitter“Let’s get them to MIA asap.”
CNBC reached out to Twitter for more information and the company responded with an automated response that included a poop emoji but no comment.
A representative for the Department of Building Inspection in San Francisco said in an emailed statement that the complaint was opened Friday morning and “no action has yet been taken.”
“We hope to reach out to building management soon,” the spokesperson wrote. “We are not speculating on possible future enforcement action.”
