Rockstar fires 30-40 staff, union says it targets organizing

Rockstar Games dismissed between 30 and 40 employees on October 30 from studios in the United Kingdom and Canada, prompting competing accounts from the company and a British trade union about the reasons for the terminations. Rockstar and its parent company Take-Two Interactive say the employees were fired for gross misconduct related to the distribution of confidential information, while the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain says the affected staff were union organizers and that the dismissals were intended to curb collective organizing.

An anonymous Rockstar spokesperson told reporters that the company took action after discovering a small number of individuals "distributing and discussing confidential information in a public forum, a violation of our company policies." The company said the information had been shared on a forum that included nonemployees, and that the dismissals were unrelated to employees' right to join a union or engage in union activities. Take-Two reiterated that "Rockstar Games terminated a small number of individuals for gross misconduct, and for no other reason."

The union said all of those dismissed were part of a private trade union chat on...