Hundreds of ZeniMax staff strike over Microsoft's remote work policies and outsourcing of work
Hundreds of employees from four ZeniMax studios went on strike on Wednesday, citing a "lack of progress" in negotiations with Microsoft, as well as the company's "unilateral decision" to outsource QA work and its tight remote work policies.
The details:
Members of ZeniMax Workers United, the second largest video game union, went on a one day strike yesterday in Maryland and Texas due to a "lack of progress" in negotiations with Microsoft following the filing of an unfair labor complaint in October.
Employees have expressed concerns about the company's remote working policies, claiming that while they are required to work from an office at least twice a week, management has denied many of their remote work requests. Activision QA staff staged a similar strike last month, claiming that the publisher forced workers with "serious medical conditions and doctor's recommendations to work from home" to work from its physical offices.
Another concern that has sparked the strike is Microsoft's "unilateral decision" to outsource QA work for ZeniMax's titles to external companies during a period of uncertainty due to mass industry layoffs. The union members are now trying to get the company to limit the percentage of outsourced QA staff compared to the number of employees on its existing in-house testing team.
Microsoft issued a statement to Inverse via email ahead of the strike yesterday. “We respect our employees’ rights to express their point of view as they have done today,” Microsoft spokesperson Becca Dougherty said. “We will continue to listen and address their concerns at the bargaining table.”
ZeniMax Workers United was founded in January 2023 as the first union under Microsoft and the largest in the industry at the time. Following the union vote, a Microsoft representative stated that the company "looks forward to engaging in good faith negotiations as we work towards a collective bargaining agreement."
More Microsoft news:
Following the success of previous multi-platform releases, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer has clarified that there is nothing preventing any of Xbox's first-party titles from being released on PS5 and Nintendo consoles in the future.
Spencer also confirmed that Microsoft is currently developing prototype Xbox handhelds to determine what the system should do, but that a device is still "years away."
