Twitter’s London headquarters was abandoned today, with all traces of the social media corporation ever occupying the building wiped.
The iconic Piccadilly Circus location was once a hub for UK-based staff, but entire teams are understood to have lost their jobs during Elon Musk’s £38billion takeover.
Today, staff at the two remaining businesses in the building told MailOnline they could not say ‘if or when’ staff were told to clear out.
Prospect, the union representing thousands of disgruntled workers, issued a letter if demand to Twitter calling for an emergency meeting over the treatment of staff.
General Secretary Mike Clancy said: ‘We are deeply concerned by further reports of the treatment of Twitter employees. From removal of remote working, demanding commitment to long hours and unsustainable working practices, and now locking employees out of their offices.
‘Big tech barons are not above the law and we will hold Twitter to legal account where possible.’
The iconic Piccadilly Circus location was once a hub for UK-based staff, but entire teams were reportedly wiped out during Elon Musk’s £38billion takeover
Overnight, Musk locked his dwindling global workforce out of their offices until next week amid reported concerns disgruntled staff could try to sabotage the company.
In a message sent to Twitter staff, and seen by the BBC, the company said that office buildings would be temporarily closed and badge access suspended until Monday.
But even signage that once occupied the walls of the London office appeared to have been removed, indicating the company may not be in the building at all anymore.
Another company is now on the first floor, which is where Twitter and smaller businesses it owned once were.
‘That’s a matter for security,’ one staffer said. ‘We don’t know what happened.’
Another source said: ‘There’s been no trace of Twitter anywhere at all.’
The offices in Dublin were also abandoned today, but video taken from the street at least showed empty desks and computers still in the building.
Prospect’s Mr Clancy said: ‘We are urgently seeking a meeting with Twitter UK Ltd to discuss how it will manage its collective redundancy consultation, ensure a fair and transparent process, and meet its duty of care and legal obligations to employees, including those with particular needs.’
In the letter, addressed to Twitter’s HR Manager, Mr Clancy said union members had addressed five primary points of concern over Musk’s actions.
These were:
- How Twitter will ensure a fair, transparent and secure collective redundancy consultation;
- How many employees, over what timescale, are at risk of redundancy and what was the criteria for their selection;
- How will the company meet its legal obligation to demonstrate it has tried to mitigate redundancies and what measures are available in this regard;
- How is the company meeting its duty of care towards employees and the wellbeing support being put in place for them to counter stress and anxiety;
- How the company proposes to promote the health, safety and well-being of its remaining employees in Twitter 2.0 who have been told they will have to ‘work long hours at high intensity’
Twitter has temporarily closed its offices as more staff chose to leave, sparking new concerns about the site’s ability to stay online
It comes as hundreds of staff who were initially selected to stay on and made it past the first wave of mass redundancies revealed they’d resigned.
Musk sent an email to his remaining 3,700 workers on Wednesday and gave them a 5pm ET Thursday deadline to either click a link confirming their willingness to work ‘long hours at high intensity’, or leave the company with three months severance pay.
He’s reportedly now sifting through the responses to determine which employees have agreed to the new terms.
But initial reports suggest it is far less than he expected, prompting him to close up the offices globally to avoid any issues with disgruntled workers.
Fortune reporter Kylie Robison tweeted last night: ‘What I’m hearing from Twitter employees; It looks like roughly 75% of the remaining 3,700ish Twitter employees have not opted to stay after the ‘hardcore’ email.’
There are also genuine fears online that with the mass exodus of engineers who prop up the site, it may soon start to fail.
Social media expert Matt Navarra told PA an imminent blackout is unlikely as Twitter is currently ‘running on autopilot’.
‘There’s a code freeze in place and Twitter is kind of running on autopilot at the moment with its IT systems, and that is a strategic move by Elon Musk to protect the stability of the platform while he figures out the next move,’ Mr Navarra said.
Musk also softened his total ban on remote work in a follow-up email in a sign that he’s being forced to make concessions to keep staff.
He had told employees that if ‘you do not show up at the office, resignation accepted,’ according to a transcript of a meeting reported by Verge.
By BRITTANY CHAIN FOR MAILONLINE
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