Rockstar Games fired unionising developers following Discord conversations about Slack policy changes, report claims

It has been claimed that Rockstar Games dismissed 34 employees last month for discussing a controversial company policy change on a private employee and union-exclusive Discord server, with the Independent Workers' Union of Great Britain (IWGB) continuing to label the act as a case of union busting.

The details:

• Last month, it was reported that Grand Theft Auto developer Rockstar Games terminated over 30 employees across UK and Canadian offices, alleging gross misconduct and the sharing of sensitive company information. The IWGB fired back at the claims, asserting that the former staff were a part of a Discord server established in 2022, which was used to discuss potential unionization, and that Rockstar had targeted the members in an act of union busting.
• In a new report from People Make Games, messages from the server in question have been shared with the public, showing that much of the recent discussion surrounds changes Rockstar made to its internal Slack policy in early October. The policy change involved the removal of miscellaneous channels used for non-work conversations about gaming, pets, and more. The company allegedly put further restrictions on emoji use in Slack, a move that the IWGB claims was to counter usage of the Palestinian flag and the seedling emoji, which had been used to show support to those affected by layoffs in the industry over the past few years.
• It was noted that since Rockstar employees must be in-office to access their company emails, an employee shared the internal messages directly via the Discord server. It’s said that at least one member of the server reported this to Rockstar management, prompting an internal investigation that concluded after the studio had gathered “evidence” against the employees, leading to the firings three weeks later.
• The IWGB recently announced that it has launched legal action against Rockstar demanding reinstatement of the fired workers, while over 200 current employees have signed a letter opposing the terminations. The situation has also been brought up in UK Parliament, with protests taking place outside of Take-Two and Rockstar’s offices.

Watch the full report here: