Rockstar and IWGB outline arguments at start of tribunal

Rockstar and the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain are presenting their respective arguments at an ongoing employment tribunal, with proceedings set to continue until October 16. The dispute stems from Rockstar's termination of 34 staff members last year, who are claiming the dismissals were due to their union activities.

According to the claimants, Rockstar had a mole in the union's Discord server as early as February 2024, which provided HR manager and co-studio operations director Charlie Kinloch with confidential information. The firings occurred weeks after the mole reported a significant rise in union recruitment in October 2025, nearing the 10% threshold required for UK statutory recognition.

The claimants assert they were dismissed without prior notice and removed from the premises without specific reasons, while Rockstar refutes this, stating they must protect sensitive information due to past leaks, such as unfinished GTA 6 development footage. The company compares its strict approach to that of tech giants like Apple or Coca-Cola, describing the union's Discord server as several rooms of increasing openness, with roughly 350 members by October 2025, many of whom were anonymous.

Rockstar alleges that the dismissed employees provided outsiders, including ex-employees, competitors, and a journalist, access to sensitive internal data. They also point to hostile comments regarding managers and the company within the server, leading them to dismiss the 34 staff members on the basis of a "retrievable breakdown in trust and confidence," rather than union organizing. Notably, three of the dismissed staff in Canada were not union members.