A new report claims that 34 developers were fired by Rockstar Games for alleged “gross misconduct” following a Discord discussion that cited emails about changes to the company’s internal Slack policies. Rockstar has been accused of union busting by the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain over the firings, with the union filing legal claims against the company.
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This new report from People Make Games cites an unnamed Rockstar insider who used the private Discord server to organize messages from Rockstar developers and IWGB staff, with the insider claiming they believe these messages contributed to the firings. The alleged messages in question include fragments of text from an internal Rockstar email regarding a change in internal Slack policy, which the company reportedly announced to employees in the second week of October this year.
According to People Make Games, the policy changes included removing various Slack channels that employees used for non-work related discussions, which Rockstar reportedly claimed had become sources of distraction and sometimes poor conduct. The report claims that at least one of Rockstar’s two emails about the changes was sent after 5pm UK time, with Rockstar employees reportedly only able to access their work emails at the company office during working hours. Some Discord members who were still in the office reportedly shared information or quotes from emails in the server, so that employees who went home could view and discuss them.
People Make Games claims that Rockstar management became aware of these messages when at least one non-union member of the Discord server reached out to them to express concerns.
I’ve contacted Rockstar for comment.
When asked about the Discord discussion of the Slack policy change by People Make Games, IWGB union president Alex Marshall said the following:
I think it’s absolutely normal for people to discuss their material situations, whether it’s bonuses, whether it’s policies, whether it’s anything like that. It’s completely normal for employees to do this and for an employer to respond in a way that shows not only that they are ruling because of a lack of transparency, but that they are also trying to rule out of fear. They feel completely threatened by the idea of workers talking to each other and that’s why they’ve taken this step to try to destroy the union, destroy any kind of solidarity among the workers.
Earlier this month, Liberal Democrat MP Christine Jardine raised the issue of the firings in the UK Parliament, revealing that she had written to Rockstar asking for information about the issue and requesting a meeting with a relevant minister in the hope of discussing what support could be given to affected employees.
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