A UK employment tribunal has turned down a request from former Rockstar Games employees for interim pay while they await a full hearing regarding their dismissals, as reported by Bloomberg and IGN. Last year, Rockstar let go of 34 employees — 31 in the UK and 3 in Canada. The Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB) has accused the company of “union busting.” Rockstar maintains that the terminated employees were leaking confidential information via a Discord channel.
The hearing lasted two days last week. IWGB president Alex Marshall stated, “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 fact that we were granted this hearing speaks to the strength of our case and, over the course of the two-day hearing, Rockstar consistently failed to back up claims made in the press or to refute that they acted unfairly, maliciously, and in breach of their own procedures.”
A spokesperson for Rockstar Games remarked to Bloomberg and IGN, “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.” Rockstar and its parent company, Take-Two, did not respond immediately to requests for comment. The company is currently developing Grand Theft Auto VI, which has recently been pushed back from its planned May launch to November 19th.
