'Conversion error': Elon Musk's X asks sacked employees to return overpaid money

Social media giant X, formerly known as Twitter, reportedly asked its sacked employees in Australia to return the money which was accidentally overpaid to them. Elon Musk's company even threatened to take some former employees to court, The Sydney Morning Herald reported on Wednesday.

The company acknowledged the "conversion error". It said that a mistake was made during the payments when it was converting the amount from US to Australian dollars.

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Now, the company is asking former employees, some sacked more than 18 months ago, to repay amounts of up to $70,000 in some cases.

At least six former staff have received legal notices, the report said citing people speaking on the condition of anonymity.

"It has come to our attention that you received a significant overpayment in error in January 2023," X's Asia Pacific human resources department said in an email, seen by this masthead, to a number of former staff this year, the report quoted.

"We would be grateful if you could arrange the repayment to us [using the account details below] at your earliest convenience," it added.

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According to the company, the overpayment was related to "deferred cash compensation", in the form of employee shares issued to the staff when they joined the company.

The total number of shares that an employee could obtain was determined by the length of their employment with the company, and these shares were valued at $US54.20 ($82) each, which was the amount at which Musk purchased the company in 2022.

The Australia-based Tabloid reported that overpayments of between $1500 and $70,000 resulted from X's currency conversion mistakes when employees were paid their entitlements once they were made redundant.

As mentioned in the report, one account said that X paid out the share entitlements at a conversion rate 2.5 times the value of the shares.

(With inputs from agencies)