- Rockstar has confirmed that its recent staff layoffs were due to ex-employees sharing confidential information on a trade union Discord.
- The publisher accused terminated employees of sharing company information, rather than something as specific as undisclosed GTA 6 details.
- In response to their statement, the IWBG has announced plans for a protest outside Take-Two's London office.
After terminating dozens of employees across its UK and Canada offices last week, Rockstar has provided an official reason behind the layoffs. Following the removal of staff, the publisher was accused of blatant union-busting by a British trade group, which stated that all terminated employees were members of a private trade union Discord server and some weren’t even active members.
The GTA 6 publisher was quick to clarify that the layoffs were tied to “gross misconduct and no other reason,” in an attempt to deny the union-busting accusations. We now know more about the alleged “gross misconduct,” thanks to comments from a Rockstar spokesperson.
Fired Employees Were Leaking Company Secrets, Says Rockstar
As reported by Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, Rockstar claims that terminated employees had been sharing confidential company information with outsiders.
“Last week, we took action against a small number of individuals who were found to be distributing and discussing confidential information in a public forum, a violation of our company policies,” a Rockstar spokesperson stated. “This was in no way related to people’s right to join a union or engage in union activities.“
The public forum referred to in the comment is the aforementioned trade union Discord. Schreier went on to clarify that the publisher accused its ex-employees of sharing company information rather than something as specific as undisclosed details about GTA 6.
Pushback to this has been severe, as the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB) has announced plans for a protest outside Take-Two’s London office for tomorrow, November 6.
Ahead of the protest, IWBG president Alex Marshall provided a statement to Bloomberg, “(Rockstar is) afraid of hard-working staff privately discussing exercising their rights for a fairer workplace and a collective voice. Management are showing they don’t care about delays to GTA VI, and that they’re prioritizing union-busting by targeting the very people who make the game.”
The ramifications of said protest remain to be seen, although the uproar will likely have an impact on staff morale, who are currently creating what will certainly become one of the highest-selling video games of all time.
