A UK employment tribunal has ruled against blacklisting claims filed against Rockstar Games by staff at the GTA 6 studio abruptly dismissed last year following ongoing legal proceedings between the two parties. The staff was laid off in the fall of last year, with Rockstar later claiming they were fired due to the leak of “confidential information” via a public forum. The IWGB Game Workers Union, which represents the ousted workers, accused Rockstar of union busting following the layoffs.
As reported Game developerThe court’s preliminary ruling will allow the fired staff to file suit against Rockstar during the final trial of the legal dispute.
In the context of employment law, the practice of blacklisting trade unionists has been defined by the British government Department for Business, Innovation and Skills in 2010 as involving “the systematic compilation of information about individual trade unionists and its use by employers and recruiters to discriminate against such individuals because of their union membership or involvement in union activities”. Anti-unionism, to put it bluntly. Thus, the IWGB will be able to present its allegations in this direction against Rockstar during the trial.
“Our case will now be heard in full and properly tested,” Ellie Dunstan, one of the fired Rockstar workers, said of the court’s decision. “The world will be able to see for themselves the evidence of what happened last October.”
“The court refused to let Rockstar off the hook, finding that serious factual questions remain about how these workers were identified, listed and fired – questions which must now be examined in a full hearing,” added Spring McParlin-Jones, president of the IWGB branch. “From the moment the employees were escorted from their buildings without warning, and at every subsequent stage of the legal process, Rockstar has attempted to avoid accountability – by denying the workers a fair hearing, failing to respond to basic evidentiary requests, and now attempting to limit scrutiny of the allegations against them.”
Earlier this year, the fired employees were denied an interim measure that would have allowed them to be put back on Rockstar’s payroll and reinstated work visas that were canceled while the case played out in court. The final trial of the legal wrangling is scheduled to take place from September 10 to October 15.
