San Francisco officials are investigating if Elon Musk’s ‘Twitter Hotel’ plan broke laws

SAN FRANCISCO –

San Francisco officers are investigating Twitter after six former workers allege that proprietor Elon Musk’s management staff broke legal guidelines by turning the corporate’s headquarters right into a “Twitter Hotel” for employees who had been pushed to remain up late to remodel the social media platform.

The San Francisco Department of Building Inspection stated Friday that it has opened a brand new grievance and might be conducting an investigation into the brand new allegations.

The San Francisco Chronicle earlier reported on town’s newest investigation into the corporate that Musk took over late final yr.

That’s after the ex-employees, together with a former vp of actual property, alleged in a lawsuit filed in a federal court docket in Delaware that Twitter did not pay them promised severance. Twitter is looking for to have the case dismissed.

The ex-workers additionally allege that Musk’s staff ordered quite a few modifications to the corporate’s headquarters in a Thirties Art Deco constructing in downtown San Francisco that violated constructing codes. Those modifications included disabling lights and including locks that would not open throughout an emergency, in response to the lawsuit.

One of the plaintiffs is Tracy Hawkins, Twitter’s former vp of actual property and office, who was liable for managing the corporate’s bodily places of work and leases. The lawsuit says Hawkins wasn’t initially against Musk’s takeover however “was forced to resign when Elon Musk and his transition team insisted that she violate her professional ethics by causing Twitter to intentionally breach its leases and other contracts.” The lawsuit claims Musk refused to pay lease on the constructing.

This just isn’t the primary time San Francisco officers have tussled with Musk, who purchased Twitter for $44 billion in October and gutted a lot of its workforce as he transformed part of the corporate’s headquarters into bedrooms.

Earlier this yr, San Francisco constructing inspectors gave Twitter’s building contractor two weeks to submit a corrected constructing use allow if the corporate needed to maintain utilizing two convention rooms as bedrooms.

The metropolis launched an investigation in December after Forbes reported on the beds, prompting Musk to lash out at San Francisco Mayor London Breed, despite the fact that there isn’t any proof she was concerned within the inspection.