Last month, Rockstar fired 31 developers over alleged union busting. Following the firing, the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain filed legal claims against Rockstar for terminating members in “manner that is unacceptable and unlawful.” Afterwards, 220 Rockstar employees signed a letter demanding their fired colleagues are reinstated. Today, during the session of Prime Minister’s Questions in the UK’s Parliament, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said that he and the other ministers would look into the situation.
During the session, Rockstar North’s local MP, Chris Murray, brought up the topic. “The video games company Rockstar in my constituency last month fired 31 employees without providing evidence or union representation,” Murray told the Prime Minister. “The [Independent Workers Union of Great Britain union] IWGB alleges union busting. Having met Rockstar they failed to reassure me they are following employment law and I share concerns about union busting.
“Given this government is responsible for the biggest increase in workers rights in a generation,” Murray continued, “does the Prime Minister agree all companies regardless of profit size must follow UK employment law and all workers have the right to join a union?”
“It’s a deeply concerning case,” Starmer replied. “Every worker has the right to join a trade union and we’re determined to strengthen workers rights and ensure they don’t face unfair consequences for being part of a union. Our ministers will look into the particular case that he [Murray] raises and will keep him updated.”
According to Bloomberg, the workers who were fired were members of a private chat server on Discord, where union organization was reportedly discussed. Another report on the situation saus that the employees had shared and discussed a specific message from Rockstar management regarding changes to the company’s Slack message policy, designed to cut down on off-topic conversations. The sharing and discussing of an internal policy was reportedly Rockstar’s legal justification to fire the workers.
This is what prompted the IWGB to file the legal claim in what they call “the most blatant and ruthless act of union busting in the history of the games industry,” made with “flagrant contempt for the law and for the lives of the workers who bring in their billions.”
Talking with IGN, MP Chris Murray also provided details of his attempts to discuss the matter with Rockstar itself. This included a joint meeting alongside fellow Edinburgh MPs Tracy Gilbert and Scott Arthur at Rockstar North’s offices which began with a standoff over the need to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA).
“The meeting began with us as MPs refused entry unless an NDA was signed, a request they eventually withdrew after it being made clear this would not be signed,” Murray said.
He continued: “The meeting only entrenched my concerns about the process Rockstar used to dismiss so many of their staff members. I was not assured their process paid robust attention to UK employment law, I was not convinced that this course of action was necessary, and alarmingly, I did not leave informed on exactly what these 31 people had done to warrant their immediate dismissal.”