Rockstar has been accused of rewarding at least one employee for surveilling a private union Discord channel by providing time off in lieu.
Last year, the Grand Theft Auto maker was accused of union busting by the Independent Workers' Union of Great Britain (IWGB) after dismissing over 30 employees who had been engaging in trade union activity.
Rockstar claims it ousted those employees for leaking confidential information in a private Discord channel, which IWGB states was used to by the union to recruit members and organise.
The situation has sparked a legal battle between both parties that is currently being heard at an employment tribunal in Glasgow.
Throughout proceedings, the IWGB has claimed that Rockstar used 'moles' to gather information from the union Discord channel. There has been some discussion as to what to call those workers, with Rockstar positioning them as 'whistleblowers.' The tribunal has settled on the phrase 'information providers.'
Today, when cross-examining Rockstar head of publishing Jennifer Kolbe, the IWGB legal team claimed those 'information providers'—whose names have been redacted from legal documents—were offered "sweeteners" by Rockstar HR in exchange for plucking information from the union Discord server.
Kolbe was shown evidence of an exchange between Rockstar HR manager Julie Stephen and an 'information provider,' who was seemingly offered additional time off as compensation for spending an hour "going through everything" on the union Discord server and procuring screenshots.
The 'information provider' specifically requested an hour off the following day, to which Stephen allegedly replied "no worries" before approving the request on a time-tracking platform used by Rockstar called Workday.
The landmark tribunal is ongoing and will conclude on November 18, one day before Grand Theft Auto VI touches down.
Chris is an award-winning reporter with over a decade of experience covering the video game industry. He was formerly news editor at Game Developer and is currently the founder and editor of this resplendent website.
