Rockstar Games workers denied interim relief as union busting case goes to Tribunal

The dispute between Rockstar Games, the makers of Grand Theft Auto (GTA) and a group of 34 dismissed employees represented by The Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB) has recently developed, following the Union’s pre-trial application for interim relief.

Interim relief is an order that can be made by the court which could relieve the workers of damages incurred in the process of appealing the lawfulness of their dismissals (such as loss of pay and removal of visas). This is a particularly important development in the dispute because when applications of these types are decided, the judge may consider evidence presented by both parties to weigh up the merits of the claim, however this is not the same thing as conducting a trial- which is still to come.

In this critical chapter, the Court unfortunately decided against the workers by denying their application for relief, leaving the workers without pay or legal protections while they wait for their full day in court. However, this finding holds no bearing on the workers’ claim for unfair dismissal, which at a substantive hearing comes with a considerably lower burden of proof than that which is applied in an application for interim relief.

In the process of the application, further light was shed on Rockstar’s justification for firing the employees, including the nature of the alleged messages leaking confidential details about the upcoming GTA release, as well as the means by which the firings were handled themselves.

People Make Games attended Court for the hearing and have provided a useful video-report which you can watch below:

The application was heard by Judge Frances Eccles who, despite finding against the game workers, wrote in her judgment:

The claimants were informed of their dismissals with very little, if any, notice and in quick succession. No one was suspended. There were no disciplinary hearings. The claimants were not given the opportunity to respond to allegations of wrongdoing before the decision was taken to dismiss them. Comments relied on by the respondent to dismiss the claimants were obtained without the knowledge of employees using Discord, described by the claimants as “covert monitoring””. Some of the claimants […] were dismissed having posted very little, on the Discord server. It had been over a year since other employees […] had posted.

There was no evidence of the respondent having suffered any adverse consequences as a result of these postings. The claimants were not informed until around six weeks after their dismissal, and having appealed against dismissal, of the comments that were said to amount to gross misconduct. Many of the claimants felt humiliated by the manner of their dismissal.

In response to the outcome, IWGB Game Workers released a statement including the following:

We have always been clear that Interim Relief is an incredibly high bar to meet as a temporary measure before the substantive tribunal, and it would have been almost unprecedented for a Judge to award this to a group of this size. That we did not secure an interim relief order means the especially stringent condition required for this kind of hearing were not met, but does nothing to suggest that Rockstar will not be found guilty of unfair dismissal when the case goes to trial.

The facts of the matter remain shocking, such as how Rockstar management have now admitted to covertly monitoring their employees on this private union Discord by impersonating a member of staff. Rather than focusing their case on evidence that Rockstar acted fairly and reasonably in their decision to fire 31 people on the spot, the argument resided largely on legal technicalities, with Rockstar’s lawyers declaring that it doesn’t matter if the dismissals were unfair, or if the leadership that dismissed them acted with malice. […]

We remain confident in the strength of our case against Rockstar Games and we reiterate our firm belief that Rockstar broke the law when it summarily dismissed 31 union members. We look forward to the day we face them in court.