The oil and gas giant recently announced a 'rightsizing' exercise – a term used for retrenchments involving thousands of staff.

Microsoft said in July last year that a small number of roles had been eliminated, while news site Axios in October reported that the company had laid off under 1,000 employees across several divisions.

The workers allege the company failed to adhere to federal laws on mass layoffs that require a 60-day notification period under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, according to the lawsuit.

Vishal Garg convened with employees over the video call and told them 'if you are on this call, you are part of the unlucky group being laid off,' according to a video posted online.