A UK employment tribunal has rejected a request from 34 fired Rockstar Games employees for interim pay while awaiting a full hearing regarding their dismissals, as reported by Bloomberg and IGN. The Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB) accused Rockstar of ‘union busting’ after the company terminated 31 UK employees and three Canadian employees last year.
During the two-day hearing, IWGB president Alex Marshall expressed confidence in the case, stating, ‘Despite being refused interim relief today, we’ve come out of last week’s hearing more confident than ever that a full and substantive tribunal will find Rockstar’s calculated attempt to crush a union to be not only unjust but unlawful.’ The union alleges that Rockstar fired the employees for leaking company information in a Discord channel.
Responding to the situation, a Rockstar Games spokesperson said, ‘We regret that we were put in a position where dismissals were necessary, but we stand by our course of action as supported by the outcome of this hearing.’ Notably, Rockstar is currently in the process of developing Grand Theft Auto VI, which recently faced a delay from its initial May launch to November 19th.
Source: The Verge