The Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB) has responded to Rockstar’s justification for dismissing over 30 employees in October.
Last week, the developer claimed these workers “distributed and discussed confidential information in a public forum, in breach of company policy and their legal obligations.”
It described “claims that these dismissals were linked to union membership or activities is entirely false and misleading.”
In response, the IWGB said (via GameSpot) Rockstar’s statement “is littered with falsehoods and disinformation” and claimed it is “attempting to reverse engineer a rationale for the dismissals.”
“Once again, they have chosen to mischaracterise workers speaking about their working conditions in a private forum as ‘leaking information’,” the organisation said.
“It is hard to understand this statement as anything but a desperate attempt to deflect from the global scrutiny they have come under over the last month.”
It concluded: “From the UK Prime Minister in the House of Commons, to the game developers across the world erupting in protest – all eyes are on Rockstar and their lawless attack on the people who make them their billions.”
Last week, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer described the dismissals as “deeply concerning” and that ministers would investigate the case.
Scottish Labour MP for Edinburgh East and Musselburgh Chris Murray brought the issue to Starmer’s attention during Prime Minister’s Questions.
In a separate statement, he expanded upon his meeting with Rockstar which he said “only entrenched [his] concern” of how the situation had been handled.
“The meeting began with us as MPs refused entry unless an NDA was signed, a request they eventually withdrew after it being made clear this would not be signed,” said Murray.
“The meeting only entrenched my concerns about the process Rockstar used to dismiss so many of their staff members.”
He continued: “I was not assured their process paid robust attention to UK employment law, I was not convinced that this course of action was necessary, and alarmingly, I did not leave informed on exactly what these 31 people had done to warrant their immediate dismissal.”
