Rockstar and fired GTA developers outline core arguments during union busting tribunal

The dispute, currently being heard at an employment tribunal in Glasgow, centers on the termination of 31 union members and three non-members across the UK and Canada. The former employees, represented by the Independent Workers' Union of Great Britain (IWGB), claim they were dismissed for engaging in protected trade union activity. Rockstar, the Respondent, maintains that the firings were the result of gross misconduct involving the unauthorized sharing of confidential information on a third-party platform.

According to legal filings obtained by Game Developer, the Claimants describe the October 30, 2025, dismissals as a calculated "decimation" of the workforce. They argue that Rockstar intentionally targeted union leaders to destabilize the group after the union crossed the 10 percent membership threshold required for statutory recognition in the United Kingdom. The Claimants allege that the studio was aware of this milestone because it had planted a "mole" in the union's Discord server years prior to funnel information back to management.

The filings state that from at least February 2024, Charlie Kinloch, an HR manager and co-studio operations director, received information from a junior employee regarding trade union activity within the server. The Claimants note that over 21 months, at least 26 meetings or communications took place between Kinloch and the identified employee concerning the server, with roughly half of them initiated by Kinloch. This individual reportedly supplied screenshots, recordings, reports on union meetings, and identified individual activists.

The Claimants assert that the mole informed Rockstar that union recruitment had increased sharply as of October 2025. Following this, the studio began seeking legal advice concerning the details obtained from the Discord server. The 10 percent membership threshold was subsequently reached and announced on the server on October 18, 2025. By the evening of October 29, managers were being supplied with lists of employees to be removed, and the dismissals began the following morning.

The former workers describe the dismissal process as abrupt and lacking in procedural fairness. They claim they were invited to brief "catch-up" meetings without advance notice or specific information regarding the alleged infractions. The filings state that pre-prepared dismissal letters contained only generic allegations and did not identify specific wrongdoing or evidence. The Claimants argue that employees with years of service and clean disciplinary records were summarily dismissed and escorted from their workplaces.

Following the dismissals, the Claimants suggest the IWGB union server collapsed "immediately," with a large number of employees departing the platform within days. They claim that union members also cancelled their memberships after the ousting of their colleagues, resulting in a reduction in membership that would prevent the 10 percent threshold from being reached in the near future.

Rockstar's defense: security and confidentiality

In its opening note, Rockstar reiterated that it fired all 34 workers for misconduct and emphasized the need for trust and confidentiality. The studio explained that it has become "hypervigilant" in recent years and instilled an "embedded culture of confidentiality" to protect key trade secrets. Rockstar suggested that the design frameworks behind titles such as Grand Theft Auto VI are as valuable as the formula behind Coca-Cola, arguing that information about new game features must not become public before the release date.

The studio claims the fired workers were "well aware" of this culture of confidentiality. Rockstar noted that it faces regular "assaults" on its security systems, including successful attacks that resulted in high-profile breaches, damaging press coverage, and significant impact on Take-Two Interactive's share value. The filings mention a 2022 leak of dozens of videos of unfinished development footage of Grand Theft Auto VI, which was obtained through phishing that gave a hacker access to an employee’s computer and material shared on internal communication channels.

Rockstar argues that Discord is a vulnerable platform that could enable similarly damaging leaks. The studio framed the digital space as a series of physical rooms, some of which are filled with hundreds of people, many of whom might be unidentifiable because they are "wearing masks." Rockstar noted that Discord was blocked by its own security systems and was being accessed by Claimants on their personal devices.

The studio described three distinct "rooms" within the Discord server. The first, "Room A," was a small room for IWGB Union Committee members only. The second, "Room B," was larger and open to any IWGB members for union-related messages. The third, "Room C," was described as huge, containing almost 350 people, including the Claimants. Rockstar stated that when it gained access to "Room C" in October 2025, it was impossible to identify the majority of the individuals, as most used online aliases rendering them anonymous.

Rockstar claims that "Room C" was filled with over 300 people, including former employees, competitors, and a journalist, who were being handed a "huge quantity of information" by the Claimants. The studio argued that the room was "surrounded by doors" that could be used to funnel information, such as game features, into the public domain. Rockstar also alleged that the fired workers were "openly and vituperatively disparaging and defaming" the company and its parent, Take-Two.

The filings cite specific examples of language used in the server, including managers being called derogatory terms and the company hierarchy being described negatively. Rockstar stated that at any moment, a screenshot or forwarding of these messages by any of the 350 users, or the publishing of an article by the journalist, could have generated enormously damaging publicity and hit market confidence and the Take-Two share price.

Rockstar claims it moved to fire the 34 workers due to an "irretrievable breakdown in trust and confidence" caused by these incidents. The studio refutes the claim that the dismissals were related to union activity by pointing out that it also fired three non-union members based in Canada who were engaging in similar misconduct within the union Discord. The tribunal is expected to run until October 16, 2026.