BBC: Grand Theft Auto game creator sacked us for trying to unionise

keraj37

keraj37

Contacted PSN to add his card back to his account
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Former staff at the firm behind Grand Theft Auto have told the BBC that a "devastating" mass sacking took place allegedly because they tried to unionise.

Some 31 employees were dismissed in October for what Rockstar North called "gross misconduct".

The majority were based at the gaming giant's Edinburgh headquarters, with former workers claiming they were penalised for discussing working conditions in a private online forum.

Rockstar North said it was incorrect to suggest the dismissals were linked to union membership or activities. It said it took action after staff discussed confidential information, including specific game features from upcoming titles, in a public forum.
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The group, along with fellow dismissed colleagues, are now hoping to take Rockstar North to an employment tribunal.

However, they may have to wait up to a year for their case to be heard.

In the meantime, they are waiting to learn if they qualify for an intermediate relief hearing, which could see them reinstated in their roles or kept on Rockstar North's payroll.

The issue was also raised at Prime Minister's Questions in Westminster last week by MP Chris Murray.

Sir Keir Starmer said it was "deeply concerning" and promised to look into the issue.
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In a statement, Rockstar North told BBC Scotland News: "Rockstar Games took action against a small group of individuals, across the UK and internationally, who distributed and discussed confidential information (including specific game features from upcoming and unannounced titles) in a public forum, in breach of company policy and their legal obligations.

"Claims that these dismissals were linked to union membership or activities are entirely false and misleading."
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There are pictures of some of the individuals sacked and non has purple hair, but they are veterans, maybe R* wants to remove older senior staff.
 
Let's try to conspire against the hand that feeds us, let's post in public forms how to hurt the company. Jesus people are weird you took the job no gun was held to your head. If you don't like the job or how you are treated find a new job.
 
Yeah, I'm not buying it at the moment. Sounds like they were misled morons sharing company information under strict NDAs, especially after the leak they went through a couple of years back. And now they're grasping at this excuse.

Clear Clear had a good breakdown.

Clear said:
So wait, just watching this video...

And...
(1) They "were close to" not at 10% the threshold for statutory recognition.
(2) They were not members of an existing union, they were attempting to create one.
(3) They were counting on protections from laws which aren't yet enacted.
(4) The subtext is also that although of the 30 people fired, not all were in the "union".
(5) This is being pushed forward by IWBG, who seem to franchise out unionship through "affiliated workplaces"... hmmm
(6) Also involvement with 3 people from the Toronto studio, who being in another country have completely different labour laws and rightts... Wut?
(7) They seem to have no clear plan for when T2 rejects their demands, and no legal argument to support them. Just dozens of bored looking pickets LOL
(8) The employers argument seems to rest on whether they were publicly talking about company confidential information, which if the have logs from the discord where the discussions were being held showing this... they will win. Its standard practice to have pretty draconian restrictions on talking about any active project enshrined in the employment contract. This can include fellow employees on other teams even if they are working on the same site.
(9) I could be wrong., but it seems like a publicity stunt with very little chance of going anywhere.
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Clear said:
I just watched the video and took notes as I went, and it struck me as a not particularly easily defensible case for the sacked people.

Based on the evidence presented there's no actual proof they were dismissed for unionizing, just their suspicion that was the motivation. By their own admittance they were in private group chats with both colleagues from another studio (Toronto) and IWBG representatives.

Their contention being that no company confidential info was being discussed in there, only personal employment stuff. Which should be easily provable if they have the private discord chat logs to exonerate them.

That's fundamentally the question that will need to be answered, because even if they were legitimately organizing a union deal, if in the process of setting that up company secrets were being exposed, they I strongly suspect will be guilty of gross misconduct and thus the dismissals will stand.

They might get some relief if process wasn't followed to the letter, but they'll still be fired.

When I described it as a publicity stunt I was speaking specifically about IWBG. Their rep was literally smacking his chops at the prospect of getting involved in such a high profile case, which struck me as inappropriate when based on the facts as presented this is hardly a slam dunk win for them. They came off as more excited than angry, more activist than unionist, it just came across as a bit "off" to me.

Especially when the people fired are very likely done in the industry; it doesn't matter if they were sacked for unionizing or gross misconduct when both will stand in the way of future employment.
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And what Rockstar said,
DeepEnigma said:
Rockstar claims they were fired for "gross misconduct" by sharing confidential information in an external discord.

Any place would fire you for using outsider public platforms during work hours when they have such tight NDA restrictions.

www.gamesindustry.biz

Report: Rockstar fired staff after Slack policy changes prompted discussion in external Discord

A new report claims that Grand Theft Auto giant Rockstar’s recent dismissal of 34 staff for "gross misconduct" was trig…
www.gamesindustry.biz www.gamesindustry.biz

They're not going to "just hire them back" if they have a leg to stand on. I would not be surprised if Rockstar just up and leaves all together after the game ships, honestly.
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They don't seem too concerned, as in, they more than likely have proof of said misconduct.
 
keraj37 said:
In a statement, Rockstar North told BBC Scotland News: "Rockstar Games took action against a small group of individuals, across the UK and internationally, who distributed and discussed confidential information (including specific game features from upcoming and unannounced titles) in a public forum, in breach of company policy and their legal obligations.

"Claims that these dismissals were linked to union membership or activities are entirely false and misleading."
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So the truth is they broke the information security policy.



If You Say So Wow GIF by Identity
 
Whilst very unlikely, it would be pretty wild if Rockstar just decides to close shop in UK because of this.

I recall they had about 3 or 4 different branches when I last checked. So a sizeable presence that would be felt in the gaming space here if they exited
 
Rockstar are so dumb

- Loses heaps of staff
- Reduces the productivity of any remaining staff
- Makes company less attractive to work at for new staff
- Some people will even refuse to play the game if it ever comes out
 
zaga said:
Rockstar are so dumb

- Loses heaps of staff
- Reduces the productivity of any remaining staff
- Makes company less attractive to work at for new staff
- Some people will even refuse to play the game if it ever comes out
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Didn't they fire like 30 people? On a team of literally thousands. So they shitcanned a fraction of a percent. And I'm sorry but the point about it potentially affecting sales is laughable.

This just seems like such a nothingburger of a story.
 
zaga said:
Some people will even refuse to play the game if it ever comes out
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I'm sure Rockstar will be real worried about those people that won't buy their game.

www.eurogamer.net

Don't feel sad for Take Two's shareholders over GTA 6 delay: GTA 5 has now sold more copies than the entire population of Brazil

Don't feel sad for Take Two's shareholders over GTA 6 delay: GTA 5 has now sold more copies than the entire population of Brazil.
www.eurogamer.net www.eurogamer.net

This game is going to break all records
 
zaga said:
Rockstar are so dumb

- Loses heaps of staff
- Reduces the productivity of any remaining staff
- Makes company less attractive to work at for new staff
- Some people will even refuse to play the game if it ever comes out
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Congradulations. You've been successful propagandized by people trying to force a narrative where there is literally no narrative. Rockstar is fine. The game is fine.
 
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Just a thought but, it seems a really strange idea to me that any chance is being held out of them being hired back.

For a start off, why would anyone want to work for a company that unjustly fired them? And even if they did wouldn't it be foolish to put yourself in a position where you're at the mercy of employers who don't like you ?

I'm not even sure if an employer can be forced to employ someone, best case being compensation for time served in the severance settlement.

This didn't register to me at first when the IWBG mentioned this outcome was their primary demand, but thinking about it, it strikes me as another red flag about their interest in/goals with the case.
 
zaga said:
Rockstar are so dumb

- Loses heaps of staff
- Reduces the productivity of any remaining staff
- Makes company less attractive to work at for new staff
- Some people will even refuse to play the game if it ever comes out
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No one is going to talk about 30 people fired from Rockstar in 2 months let alone when GTAVI comes out lmao.
 
I don't think he's being serious, peeps.

Clear said:
Just a thought but, it seems a really strange idea to me that any chance is being held out of them being hired back.

For a start off, why would anyone want to work for a company that unjustly fired them? And even if they did wouldn't it be foolish to put yourself in a position where you're at the mercy of employers who don't like you ?

I'm not even sure if an employer can be forced to employ someone, best case being compensation for time served in the severance settlement.

This didn't register to me at first when the IWBG mentioned this outcome was their primary demand, but thinking about it, it strikes me as another red flag about their interest in/goals with the case.
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That's the rub, innit.
 
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First rule of unionization is that your bosses should never hear about it until you go public.
They fucked up and they got wasted.
They have legal recourse but can you afford a lawyer with no job ?
 
They were using the slack to talk shit about management, support palestine and the usual commie behaviour. I stopped suporting them when I saw what they were posting. It was like cornball reddit, and these were supposed to be grown people working a high-end job.
 
I don't know about unions. To me it seems bit naive to think if we just collectively extorted employers we could have substantially better life style. In finland union wages apply to non union members too, and it doesn't feel like workers paradise with 10% unemployment also
 
kpopSuperstar said:
They were using the slack to talk shit about management, support palestine and the usual commie behaviour. I stopped suporting them when I saw what they were posting. It was like cornball reddit, and these were supposed to be grown people working a high-end job.
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If that's the case, good riddance.
 
Where are the activist who are now refusing to buy the game? I will be buying my copy day one when it hits PC.
 
It's the BBC, so I automatically assume whatever is being reported is either entirely false or is being used to push a narrative.

In this case, it looks like a bunch of employees were terminated for violating an NDA and sharing corporate secrets, and are now trying to spin everything into an anti-union narrative.

Regardless, f*ck unions and the employees that support them.
 
Poppinfresh said:
It's the BBC, so I automatically assume whatever is being reported is either entirely false or is being used to push a narrative.

In this case, it looks like a bunch of employees were terminated for violating an NDA and sharing corporate secrets, and are now trying to spin everything into an anti-union narrative.

Regardless, f*ck unions and the employees that support them.
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Спасибо за ваш вклад. Российская бот-ферма.
 
Onironauta said:
Whenever people talk about unions, a bunch of muricans say the dumbest shit.

Enjoy your lack of job security, sick leave and PTO.
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Enjoy living in a socialist shithole.

And if it happens to be a European socialist shithole you can thank my ancestors for saving your ass in WWII

 
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Onironauta said:
Whenever people talk about unions, a bunch of muricans say the dumbest shit.

Enjoy your lack of job security, sick leave and PTO.
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We have PTO and Sick Leave. If you work hard for the most part you have Job security. I have been laid off 3 times though, but I found another job within a few days each time. I do think American companies could do a better job of profit sharing with employees. I would also like a reduction in the size of government.

We earn much higher wages as well.

The wage differences between the United States and Europe are significant, with the US generally offering higher wages, especially for skilled and high-paying jobs. However, the cost of living in the US is typically higher than in Europe, which can make the overall cost of living in the US more expensive. In contrast, Europe offers more extensive social contributions and benefits, which can lead to lower total employment costs.
For example, European total employment costs are between 26% and 48% lower than in the US when hiring at local market rates, despite higher proportional costs in European systems. This is because European salaries for mid-level software developers range from $56,994 to $75,201, while US salaries range from $110,138 to $133,707.
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AJUMP23 said:
We have PTO and Sick Leave. If you work hard for the most part you have Job security. I have been laid off 3 times though, but I found another job within a few days each time. I do think American companies could do a better job of profit sharing with employees. I would also like a reduction in the size of government.

We earn much higher wages as well.
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In many European countries sick leave lasts up to several years, 30+ PTO days is the minimum, and you can't legally fire an employee without a justified reason.

The US have much higher wages on average, yes. But that's not because of unions.
 
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