Rockstar fired unionising GTA 6 devs following Discord chat about new company Slack policy, claims report
A new report claims the firing of 34 developers by Rockstar Games for alleged “gross misconduct” followed a Discord discussion which cited emails about changes to the company’s internal Slack policies. Rockstar have been accused of union busting by the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain over the firings, with the union having filed legal claims against the company.
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This new report from People Make Games cites an anonymous Rockstar insider as having passed on messages from the private Discord server Rockstar developers and IWGB staff were using to organise, with the insider claiming they believe these messages contributed to the firings. The alleged messages in question discuss and include snippets of text from internal Rockstar emails concerning a change in internal Slack policy, which the company reportedly announced to staff in the second week of October this year.
According to People Make Games, the policy changes included the removal of miscellaneous Slack channels which staff used for non-work related discussions, with Rockstar allegedly claiming these had become distracting and occasionally sources of poor conduct. The report claims that at least one of the two emails from Rockstar about the changes was sent out after 5PM UK time, with Rockstar staff reportedly only able to access their work emails while at the company office during work hours. Some members of the Discord who were still in office then allegedly shared information or quotes from the emails in the server, so staff who’d gone home could see and discuss them.
People Make Games claim Rockstar management then became aware of these messages when at least one non-union member of the Discord server reached out to them to express concern.
I’ve reached out to Rockstar for comment.
Asked about the Discord discussion of the Slack policy changes by People Make Games, IWGB union president Alex Marshall said the following:
I think it is absolutely normal for people to be discussing their material conditions, whether that’s bonuses, whether that’s policies, whether that’s anything like that. That’s completely normal for staff to be doing that and for an employer to respond in a way that comes down so hard on that shows not only that they are governing by this lack of transparency, but they’re also trying to govern by fear. They feel completely threatened by the idea of workers talking to each other and that’s why they’ve taken this act to try and destroy the union, decimate any form of kind of solidarity being built between workers.
Earlier this month, Liberal Democrat MP Christine Jardine raised the issue of the firings in UK Parliament, revealing that she’d written to Rockstar asking for information about the issue and requesting a meeting with a relevant minister in the hopes of discussing what support may be offered to affected staff.
