Rockstar Games, the Edinburgh-based studio behind the blockbuster Grand Theft Auto franchise, is set to face a major employment tribunal later this year over staff dismissals.
The Independent Workers of Great Britain (IWGB), an independent employee trade union, is bringing the legal action on behalf of 31 former employees dismissed in October last year.
The workers had been employed on Grand Theft Auto 6, one of the most anticipated video game releases in recent memory, at the time of their dismissal.
The Glasgow Employment Tribunal is scheduled to hear the case from 10 September through to 16 October, spanning several weeks of legal proceedings.
The IWGB alleges the dismissed workers were “targeted for their union activities” and that the manner in which they were let go was “unlawful” and “without disciplinary process or right of appeal.”
The union is also alleging that Rockstar Games “compiled and used lists” of employee names “for the purpose of discriminating against them,” amounting to what would be considered blacklisting.
According to the IWGB, employees present in the office that day were “called into meetings, told they were being fired with immediate effect and escorted from the building.”
Those not on site were allegedly “informed during phone calls lasting around two minutes before being locked out of their work accounts,” the union has claimed.
A judge already ruled in June to strike out Rockstar Games’ application to have the blacklisting allegations removed from the claim, strengthening the union’s position ahead of the full hearing.
The legal action runs alongside broader negotiations between the IWGB and Rockstar Games over formal recognition of working conditions for games developers, including issues around pay transparency, overtime expectations, and flexible working arrangements.
Alex Marshall, president of the IWGB Union, said: “We believe Rockstar has tried to get away with Grand Theft Employment Rights. After a year of fighting to get answers, we hope this tribunal will finally back them into a corner and bring the truth to light.”
Grand Theft Auto 6 is expected to be among the most commercially significant video game launches of the decade, with a release currently scheduled for November following repeated delays to official updates.
In August, Rockstar Games addressed a series of leaked gameplay videos, describing the leaks as “heartbreaking” after approximately eight years of development work on the title.
The studio said the situation was “not how we intended for you to see the game after all this time,” though it had not initially responded when the leaks first appeared a week earlier.
Rockstar Games was contacted for comment but had not responded at the time of publication.