Rockstar Games vs. the Union: First Results of the Case

At the beginning of the week, the Glasgow Tribunals Centre hosted a preliminary hearing in the case. Judge Frances Eccles (amusingly, she shares a surname with Maude) issued a ruling regarding interim relief. Former employees were denied the reinstatement of financial payments and work visas. The claimant, represented by the Independent Workers of Great Britain, failed to convince the court that Rockstar Games had deliberately obstructed union activity. During the proceedings, several interesting details came to light.

• A Discord server where union-member developers discussed confidential information had been infiltrated by one of the company’s employees. This is how the information reached management.
• Immediately after the layoffs, the Home Office — responsible for immigration control — was notified. Once a job is lost, the relevant visa is nullified after three months. This was supposed to happen only after an appeal, but since an initial refusal has already been issued and the deadline is nearly up, those affected by this requirement will have to leave the country.
• In addition to disclosing previously unknown details about GTA 6 employees were accused of insulting managers, calling them c**s, and complaining about overall company policy using the phrase “corporate f**k”.
• The journalist who participated in the chats was Alsworth, formerly of Bohemia Interactive (creators of Arma and DayZ), now a freelance journalist. He has been assisting IWGB and has written about Grand Theft Auto VI, for example for the Morning Star (his article).
• Rockstar’s lawyer, barrister Andrew Burns, cited just one message — a 15-word post — written by one of the employees laid off in the Canadian office. In it, the employee stated that there was no crunch (unpaid overtime) and promised to inform others if it appeared. (Outside observers concluded that he may have been fired solely for this message, but it is possible that other messages were simply not raised in court, so drawing such conclusions would be premature.)
• The dismissed employees are represented by Lord John Hendy, a veteran of labour and trade union law. He previously defended the miners who led the country’s largest strike in 1984–1985.
• The case file exceeds two thousand pages and is available for anyone to review. At present, it can be accessed only at the court itself; a digital version is expected later. Despite the leakage of certain information, this represents a minor victory for the company, though the main hearing still lies ahead. The union, for its part, is not giving up and believes it will be able to prove the defendant’s wrongdoing.

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