Glasgow Tribunal Begins Hearing the Dismissal of 34 Rockstar Employees — Hearings May Run Until 16 October

On 10 September, an employment tribunal in Glasgow began hearings in the case of former Rockstar Games employees dismissed in November 2025. The proceedings are expected to last about five weeks and may run until 16 October 2026. In the morning, the dismissed developers and their supporters held a rally outside the Glasgow Tribunal Centre.

The studio insists that it dismissed the staff for gross misconduct — disclosing confidential company information. The Independent Workers' Union of Great Britain (IWGB) claims the real reason was the workers' attempt to organise, and has previously called what happened one of the most blatant and brutal acts of union-busting in the history of the games industry.

A total of 34 people lost their jobs. Of them, 31 were IWGB members, and three more worked in Canada and also took part in union activity. Those dismissed had been working on Grand Theft Auto VI. Rockstar itself is owned by Take-Two Interactive.

It all comes down to a private Discord channel

Rockstar says the dismissals were prompted by messages in a private Discord channel that employees used to discuss union matters, and that these messages breached confidentiality agreements. A statement from a studio representative stresses that the company's position has not changed: employees in the UK and Canada were dismissed for gross misconduct after passing on confidential company information, and not because of alleged union membership or union activity. The studio rejects the workers' claims and intends to contest them at the tribunal.

The IWGB considers the dismissals unlawful both in their motives and in their procedure: according to the union, the people were singled out precisely for taking part in organising, and were denied basic procedural safeguards when their contracts were terminated. The claimants are seeking reinstatement or compensation, as well as a finding that the dismissals were unfair.

The tribunal will have to determine where the line lies between colleagues talking about working conditions in a private chat and the disclosure of company information, and whether invoking a confidentiality agreement is enough to dismiss more than three dozen people at once.

Why a year of waiting has ended now

One of those dismissed, IWGB member Jason Lewis, says that for almost a year the truth about what happened remained buried under speculation, and only now has it become possible to put it on the record. In their words, no one on the team imagined that talking to each other about working conditions would turn their lives upside down and throw them into the centre of a global media storm.

“We have fought as hard as we could to get to this point — not only to win justice for ourselves, but to draw a line for any employer that thinks it can attack workers for forming a union,” Lewis said.

IWGB president Alex Marshall believes the outcome of the case will resonate far beyond a single studio and even a single industry: in their words, the hearings matter for any worker in the UK — in entertainment, in education and anywhere else — because what is at stake is the right to join a union and the protection of that right from punishment by the employer.

The hearings will end just weeks before the release of Grand Theft Auto VI, set for 19 November 2026. The game the claimants worked on will go on sale almost simultaneously with the ruling on their dismissal.

What this case means for the industry

The case comes against the backdrop of unions taking hold in game development in recent years: at Blizzard, a collective agreement covered around 1,900 employees. The dispute in Glasgow tests the opposite direction — how much it costs an employer to try to stop organising at an early stage.

The outcome will probably affect the behaviour of both sides. If the tribunal finds the dismissals unfair, studios will have to be far more careful with disciplinary procedures involving employees seen taking part in union activity, and the wording of confidentiality agreements will stop working as a universal ground for parting ways. If the decision goes in Rockstar's favour, major publishers will gain a workable argument: discussing internal conditions in work and semi-work chats can be classified as a leak.

The takeaway for the rank-and-file developer probably will not depend on the verdict: correspondence in corporate and quasi-corporate channels is potential evidence in an employment dispute, and union work in the industry has moved from the realm of declarations into the realm of court cases with long timelines and a high cost of error.

Community reaction

The Glasgow hearings have split the discussion on X. Union supporters and some players see the tribunal as a chance for justice: they call the dismissals union-busting, wish the developers victory and hope the verdict will become a precedent against crunch overtime. An Edinburgh MP and IWGB activists state outright their solidarity and that persecution for organising is unacceptable. In fan threads around the video of the rally the tone is different: those dismissed are mocked as sore losers, told to be grateful for a job at Rockstar and accused of wanting to ruin games. The company repeats its version about leaks on Discord, and part of the audience prefers not to take sides until the court rules.

“Solidarity with the dismissed Rockstar workers and the IWGB at the tribunal today. Union-busting cannot be tolerated under any circumstances.”

— @KatrinaFaccenda (X)

“Now it's clear why Rockstar fired them.”

— @Parvonse (X)

“Rockstar's offices are busier persecuting unions than caring about developers. The real GTA VI heist starts in their own bosses' offices.”

— @becariodelhype (X)

What explains the dismissals at Rockstar: a response to union activity, a real data leak, a tightening of internal rules?