Professed Grand Theft Auto 6 developer says the only 'gross misconduct' at Rockstar Games is an alleged anti-union campaign

Rockstar Games has been all the talk lately. Whether it's the latest delay of its upcoming game, Grand Theft Auto VI, or the rumored union busting it's been doing. Either way, it's all been bad news for the company.

Now, coming to the forefront, is another rumor that seems to confirm the validity of the union busting we reported on a couple of days ago.

This time, the news comes straight from a supposed employee who has been verified by the people running GTAForums.com.

Anonymously, as though the employee could do anything but post anonymously for fear of losing their job, they posted,

"Hey everyone, R* Employee of many years here!

I've been reading a lot of the discussion on here and elsewhere about the firing of more than 34 of my colleagues last week (31 in the UK + 3 in Canada), and have seen a lot of disinformation and lies that are really concerning. Particularly concerning how so many folk are willing to believe the Company's excuses."

In a later post, the employee was verified by an administrator of the site, Spider-Vice, who is one of the most senior staff members on GTA Forums.

The employee continued, "Last week, my colleagues who were in the studio were each individually messaged by HR for a short, friendly meeting, under the friendly guise of 'Hey, are you free for a quick chat?' Upon attending this meeting, they were handed an envelope with a short letter stating that their employment had been terminated for "gross misconduct" regarding posts made in Discord.

They failed to provide any evidence when asked, nor was any stated in the letter. And did not divulge any other information or reasoning - 'and no other reason'. They refused their right to Union representation in the disciplinary meeting (which is against UK employment law) and were frogmarched out of the studio with the meeting lasting less than 5 minutes."

Sounds rather damning when laid out in such a straightforward fashion. Looking into UK law, as outlined in Section 10 of the Employment Relations Act 1999, workers are indeed entitled to representation during hearings that could result in disciplinary action, warnings, or dismissal. However, for the sake of accuracy, these employees were not yet part of a union.

Instead, there have been ongoing efforts by the UK-based employees who were fired to form a union through the Independent Workers' Union of Great Britain (IWGB). This, without a doubt, is very illegal in the United Kingdom.

The Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act of 1992 outlines this very outcome.

For purposes of (unfair dismissal), the dismissal of an employee shall be regarded as unfair if the reason for it (or, if more than one, the principal reason) was that the employee was, or proposed to become, a member of an independent trade union or had taken part, or proposed to take part, in the activities of an independent trade union at an appropriate time.

Make no mistake, if what this employee says is true, Rockstar Games is in for a lawsuit. However, even if this may look like a slam-dunk case on the surface, larger companies like Rockstar Games can bully these individuals in court with their massive corporate backing.

With all the money in the world, companies can delay dates and become a general nuisance, to the point that even class-action-sized lawsuits can run low on steam. To the point, they may have to give up the endeavor. Whatever the case, it's unclear whether Rockstar Games believes it can win this sort of thing in court, or if it believes even the potential loss will still help prevent future employees from unionizing.

With others in the field, like Microsoft, allowing massive unionization efforts within their companies, like Zenimax, the timing for Rockstar Games couldn't be worse. As to why Rockstar would think that stopping a few employees from forming a union at this time — only 12 months before the release of Grand Theft Auto VI — would be beneficial, it baffles me.

Given that Grand Theft Auto V has managed to make somewhere around $9 billion, I can't imagine they'll be strapped for cash when it comes to the release of GTA VI. Now, granted, the rumored cost to develop GTA VI is somewhere between $1 and $2 billion, but it's estimated that the sequel will make that back in days. Some even estimate $7.6 billion in the first 60 days.

Does Rockstar Games really need to hold onto that extra money they'd save from not having unionized workers? In the opinion of this lowly IT worker who also just happens to write news articles about the video games industry, hell no.

Rockstar Games, in all its glory, is hilariously becoming a mockery of the very companies its video games tend to make fun of. I even remember a union-busting mission in Grand Theft Auto IV, where the protagonist Niko takes on a group of union workers who are preventing scabs from getting to work.

Yes, Rockstar Games is now living out the very missions they created over a decade ago. If that's not irony, I don't know what is.

What's your take on this whole situation? Do you think Rockstar Games is right, or the employees? Let us know below or on social media. I'm sure this will be a pleasant discussion with no one living the "defend the billion-dollar company" meme.

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