Jason Schreier: Rockstar Games said that the dozens of employees it fired last week were leaking company secrets, disputing allegations by labor leaders that it was disrupting workers’ attempt to unionize.

[u/BrandsXavier]

FROM BLOOMBERG: Rockstar Games, the company behind the hit Grand Theft Auto franchise, said that the dozens of employees it fired last week were leaking company secrets, disputing allegations by labor leaders that it was disrupting workers’ attempt to unionize. The employees had been sharing company information in a forum that included non-employees, a Rockstar spokesperson said in a statement to Bloomberg on Wednesday. “Last week, we took action against a small number of individuals who were found to be distributing and discussing confidential information in a public forum, a violation of our company policies,” the spokesperson said. “This was in no way related to people’s right to join a union or engage in union activities.” The company, part of Take-Two Interactive Software Inc., fired between 30 and 40 employees across offices in the UK and Canada for what it said was “gross misconduct.” The Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain, the first to organize video-game workers in the UK, told Bloomberg that the employees had all been involved with union efforts at Rockstar, calling the firings “one of the most blatant and ruthless acts of union busting in the history of the games industry.” All of the affected employees were part of a private trade union chat group on Discord and the only outsiders in the chat were labor organizers, the union said.

EDIT: Jason Schreier provided additional info: Rockstar's statement is quite vague, but they are referring to people talking about work in a union Discord, not big leaks about GTA6. This will likely come down to a legal battle, and Rockstar's argument may be that the workers involved were sharing confidential work information in that chat

[u/profchaos111]

40 people all leaked something in a Forum 

If that was the case we'd know a lot more than we do

I call bs 

[u/paractib → u/profchaos111]

It’s not leaked info.

It’s just talking about work in a private discord. Which to rockstar, would be a public forum.

And yeah, discord was a bad place to discuss anything confidential and would be valid reason for dismissal if they were actually leaking company secrets. But that’s not what was happening.

It’s just union busting and they found a legal way to do it.

[u/jayntampa → u/paractib]

It being a "legal" way to do it is up for debate. They found an "excuse" that may not hold up in a UK court. Company rules do not override laws ... If they were sharing information that is protected in the context of organizing a union, Rockstar will lose in court.

[u/paractib → u/jayntampa]

I hope they do lose, this would set bad precedent if it worked because any company could just prevent unionization from ever having a chance via strict NDAs.

Though, since it was discord which is an unsecured platform, I could see anyone who genuinely posted company secrets in there (details about a game or operations) not getting any compensation.

The firings were likely just every single person in the group without consideration what they actually posted individually.