Almost two weeks after 31 developers were fired from Rockstar Games, the union representing the former employees says the Grand Theft Auto 6 maker has refused to meet with it to discuss what it alleges was an act of union busting aimed at disrupting ongoing organizing efforts at the UK-based studios. The IWGB now plans to move forward with legal claims against the company asserting that the firings “constitute trade union victimization and blacklisting.”
A spokesperson for the union said legal claims were submitted to the country’s Employment Tribunal last Thursday and the date for an initial hearing will depend on the court’s backlog. Take-Two and Rockstar have denied allegations of mishandling the firings, claiming the employees were released for “gross misconduct” related to allegedly sharing company secrets online. The union claims discussions only took place in private Discord channels.
In the meantime, an ongoing pressure campaign, including picketing outside Rockstar and Take-Two’s offices in the UK, has apparently failed to bring the company back to the table to discuss getting the fired developers their jobs back so they can continue working on the recently delayed blockbuster.
“Despite our representation and attempts to meet with Rockstar to resolve the matter through negotiation, Rockstar have declined and persisted to terminate members of the union in a manner that is unacceptable and unlawful,” lawyers for the union wrote in a statement. “Accordingly, we have now issued formal legal claims against Rockstar on behalf of the Claimants.”
The core of the legal fight could come down to whether individual employment contracts with the fired employees trump broader labor protections for union organizing. “We are confident that what we’ve seen here is plain and simple union busting, and we will mount a full legal defence with our expert group of caseworkers, legal officers and barristers,” IWGB president Alex Marshall said in a statement. “Employers like Rockstar would do well to understand that private spaces such as trade union Discord servers have protections, and that their company’s contractual clauses do not supersede UK law.”
