Elon Musk’s X Wants Money from Laid-Off Employees Over Alleged Overpayments
Elon Musk’s X Wants Money from Laid-Off Employees Over Alleged Overpayments
Elon Musk’s X Corp. is demanding repayment from at least six former Australian employees after an overpayment error due to incorrect currency conversion. The company has threatened legal action to recover these funds, as reported by the Sydney Morning Herald.
The overpayments, which occurred in January 2023, ranged from $1,500 to $70,000 per employee. They were part of a ‘deferred cash compensation’ related to employee shares, valued at $54.20 USD each—the price Musk paid when acquiring Twitter in 2022. The mistake happened because X Corp. used an incorrect conversion rate, reportedly 2.5 times the actual value.
Emails from X’s Asia Pacific HR department indicate that none of the affected former employees have returned the money yet. Employment law specialist Hayden Stephens noted that while the employees might need to repay the funds, they should request detailed explanations and evidence of the error from X Corp. Australian employment law typically requires the repayment of genuine overpayment mistakes.
Meanwhile, X Corp. faces numerous legal and employment challenges in both Australia and the US. Approximately 2,000 former US-based employees are engaged in lawsuits and arbitration claims against X Corp. for unpaid severance, with settlement talks having failed in multiple cases. Additionally, four former Twitter executives, including ex-CEO Parag Agrawal and former CFO Ned Segal, are suing X Corp. for over $128 million in unpaid severance following their dismissal after Musk’s acquisition of Twitter. The trial for this case is scheduled for November 2025.
The company also faces numerous lawsuits from vendors seeking compensation for unpaid services post-acquisition, adding to its mounting legal woes.
