Former Rockstar Games staff were fired last month due to internal company messages being discussed on a Discord server shared privately between staff and union workers, a new report has suggested.
Rockstar Games fired 34 staff members for “gross misconduct”, though further details have not been officially revealed. The company has since been accused of union-busting, with UK trade union Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB) launching a legal claim alleging unfair dismissal of staff.
Now, a new video report from People Make Games has revealed messages shared in a Discord server, sourced from a Rockstar insider who believes these may be the cause of dismissal.
Use of the Discord server began in 2022 and was invite-only for employees, with a “general” channel available to all and other channels accessible only for paying union members. Membership to the Discord was limited to either Rockstar employees, or representatives of the IWGB (which the Rockstar union was part of).
Most conversations in the Discord were around salaries, bonuses, and other HR issues – topics protected by the Equality Act of 2010 and relevant to the union members.
After major leaks in the past, it’s understandable Rockstar would be protective of its work. But it would appear this Discord server contained no confidential information about its games.
The catalyst towards these dismissals, however, appears to be the sharing and discussion in the server of changes to internal Slack policies.
Rockstar employees are unable to access their work emails outside of the office and, as at least one email concerning these internal policy changes was shared after work hours, it was instead discussed in this Discord server, with details and quotes shared.
People Make Games’ source believes at least one server member brought this to Rockstar management, which reportedly led to an internal investigation into the Discord server. The Slack policy changes were initiated in the second week of October and by the end of the month, 34 employees had been fired – as such, the timing of these dismissals is in line with these messages, as the source suspects.
The Slack policy changes themselves include the removal of various miscellaneous chat channels concerning non-work topics, which Rockstar considered a distraction. The “Slack purge”, as it became known by employees, proved unpopular and, as such, was discussed separately on the Discord server.
One Slack channel focused on gaming became a place for employees to share industry news on mass layoffs. Union members often reacted with the seedling emoji to show support. Elsewhere on Slack, employees would use emojis such as this (or the Palestine flag) in their status to show support for important causes. All of this was disallowed under Rockstar’s new Slack policy.
“What we’ve seen time and time again is that Rockstar are desperately trying to prevent people from being able to communicate,” IWGB president Alex Marshall told People Make Games. “And all these workers have ever been trying to do is to discuss their pay and conditions in order to try and improve them so they can deliver a game that’s loved by millions.”
Marshall also explained IWGB’s presence in the Discord server is legally sound as it’s completely normal for workers, when they join a union, to be supported by union staff.
Rockstar refused to comment on People Make Games’ investigation.
In addition to the IWGB’s legal case against Rockstar, over 200 employees at Rockstar have signed a letter to management condemning the firing of their fellow staff members.
The dismissal was also discussed in UK Parliament last week.
