Employee dismissed from GTA developer believes workers were put on ‘watch list’A group of former employees of Rockstar North are claiming they were unfairly dismissed for trade union activities.The case is being heard at the Glasgow Tribunals Centre (Jane Barlow/PA)PA WireLucinda Cameron6 minutes ago
A worker dismissed from the developer of Grand Theft Auto has told an employment tribunal they believe workers were placed on a “watch list” after signing a petition about remote working.
A group of former employees of Rockstar North are claiming they were unfairly dismissed for trade union activities.
Some 34 people are believed to have been dismissed in October last year and 23 are taking part in the employment tribunal.
They are being represented by the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB).
A group of former Rockstar employees are claiming unfair dismissal from the video games developer (Jane Barlow/PA)PA Wire
Rockstar has said it will vigorously contest the tribunal and accused the former employees of breaching the company’s confidentiality rules by discussing sensitive information on a Discord server.
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Dayne Oram, one of those dismissed, gave evidence to the tribunal in Glasgow on Friday.
The tribunal heard that around 150 Rockstar employees, not all of them union members, signed a petition about returning to the office, which was handed to the company in the spring of 2023.
Thomas Cordrey, representing Rockstar, asked Mx Oram whether they believe the fact they were one of those who signed the petition was the “sole or principal reason for your dismissal”.
The witness replied: “Not just that, I think it was connected to my other activities. It was maybe the start of them keeping an eye on things but it was not the sole reason.”
The inquiry heard that around 15-20 of those who signed the petition were union members but that there was nothing on the list of signatories to identify them.
The witness suggested it could be “inferred” which of the signatories were union members from those who handed in the petition.
Mr Cordrey asked how there could be a connection between Rockstar having the list of names in February 2023 and the dismissals in October 2025 when there was a gap of two years and eight months between the events.
Mx Oram replied: “I believe this forms the basis of a watch list of people to keep an eye on for further activities.”
People take part in a rally outside Glasgow Tribunals Centre ahead of a hearing for a group of former Rockstar employees who are claiming unfair dismissal from the video games developer (Jane Barlow/PA)PA Archive
Mr Cordrey asked how, when 141 of 154 people who signed the petition were not dismissed, “how can that even be the starting point?”
The witness replied: “I believe it was the starting point and used to watch people for activities that were considered distasteful.”
The tribunal also heard that Mx Oram was involved in setting up a Discord server that was used as a forum where around 300 Rockstar employees could discuss the company.
Mr Cordrey mentioned a number of posts where he suggested employees were “venting” or making disparaging remarks about the company.
He read one comment which referred to “s***** toxic managers” while another referred to managers as “cowardly corporate f****” and one urged another employee to “wait for that GTA bonus and get out”.
Mr Cordrey read from the rules set out by moderators asking users to be “professional and constructive” and put it to Mx Oram that this was “routinely broken”.
Mx Oram said it was “more of a guiding principle”.
The inquiry heard that a comment describing a specific manager as “incompetent” was removed by moderators.
(Jane Barlow/PA)PA Wire
When Mr Cordrey asked why that comment about a specific manager was deleted whereas others were left, Mx Oram said they believed it was because the latter were more “general” and “generic” and not individual.
Mr Cordrey also mentioned a post where a user described someone as a “c***”.
He asked the witness: “Calling a named individual the C word is not common. If you saw it, would it be gross misconduct?”
The witness replied: “It would be misconduct. I disagree it would be gross misconduct.”
Mx Oram also told the inquiry: “If I had to remake some of the moderation decisions, probably I would make them differently now.”
The former Rockstar employee also said that moderators did not want to “over police” the chat room.
The witness told the tribunal: “We were human admins trying to keep the line without over policing.”
The tribunal also heard that some of those in the Discord group were former employees.
Grand Theft Auto VI, the latest instalment in the popular video game series, is due for release on November 19.
Pre-orders of the game are already thought to have been worth hundreds of millions.
Lawyers for the claimants are expected to allege that workers were unlawfully blacklisted and targeted for their union activities.
Rockstar Games has said the workers were dismissed for “gross misconduct” following the sharing of confidential information, rather than trade union activity.
The inquiry continues before judge Lucy Wiseman.
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