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The YouTube channel People Make Games has published a video interview with several workers who were suddenly fired by Rockstar Games earlier this month and have been protesting outside Rockstar North ever since. Right away, the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB) stated that it was a pure act of union-busting, as the workers had just secured a 10% agreement from the workforce at the Edinburgh office to unionize. Rockstar replied that they had been leaking information on a public forum; however, the employees claim there was no evidence of that, and that they were rushed out with no due process or representation. The author of the video notes that they had already been contacted about the new union, which was set to be announced shortly, and planned to create a video about it before the layoffs occurred. Throughout the interview, the employees express their dismay at the circumstances of their termination, which could also negatively impact their resumes due to the studio's claim of 'gross misconduct' as the cause. But they would also like to be reinstated into Rockstar and get back to work to finish Grand Theft Auto VI (now slated for November 19, 2026, following another delay). Bran said: If I have gross misconduct on my CV, on my resume for the rest of my life, that is a huge detriment to any future career prospects. Something important to notice as well is you feel shame to be kicked out of work this way. Like, all of us still want to be here. We want our jobs, we want to finish what we were working on. And now the internal shame feel of having this gross misconduct with you forever, it's hard to explain. What's happening next? Fred, an organizer from the IWGB, explains it: The immediate goal here is very clear. It's the reinstatement of all 31 workers in the UK who've been fired and the three workers in Toronto. We know that our sister union in Canada is working to support. It's a reinstatement for those workers. It's full compensation for pay lost during this period. It's clear accountability for the way these dismissals have been handled, these very clear, unfair dismissals without procedure, without evidence. So clear accountability from the company, and a commitment to following employment law in the UK in the future. What happens next is up to Rockstar. I just wanna be really clear. [...] We've just submitted our legal claim. The ball is in their court to respond. We hope they'll resolve this with us amicably, right? This is, in the end, egregious, and to be honest, shocking. I have never seen a thing like this, not just in the game sector, but in UK trade union organising in the last 20 years. This is the moment where Rockstar can make that right. These are workers who just want to go back to work, to work on a game that they love. If they don't, they've seen what they have to contend with. The force of public feeling is against them on this, and we'll continue to put pressure on them through legal, through demonstrations, speaking about what these workers have experienced. The layoff timing would seem odd if you consider that the studio wouldn't want to part with experienced workers while finishing a project of the magnitude of Grand Theft Auto VI. However, the UK is currently on the verge of passing the Employment Rights Bill, which will enhance security for workers starting next year, making this the best time to lay off people if someone really wanted to. For his part, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick told IGN that the work culture at the publisher and at Rockstar is 'extraordinary', though he did not make any further comment on the actual layoffs.
