Ubisoft Montreal workers defend the hybrid schedule
The Ubisoft Workers of Montreal union has launched a public campaign, whose first action was collecting signatures in favor of keeping the hybrid work schedule. By Wednesday more than 300 Ubisoft employees had signed the petition, the GWU Montreal group reported. Many of the signatures were collected in person.
At issue are the employees of Ubisoft's Montreal studio and a question that has remained contentious across the industry in recent years: how many days a week a developer is required to spend in the office.
The return to office came in the same package as layoffs
In January Ubisoft announced that all employees must come into the office five days a week. In its press release the company explained the decision by the need to improve collaboration. The same statement announced layoffs, delays and studio closures: the company called it a "rightsizing" that should restore its creative leadership and flexibility and deliver a sharp rebound. By that point Ubisoft had just received a $1.25 billion investment from Tencent.
Employees of the Paris sites went on strike against the new policy shortly after the announcement. When the Montreal studio's team lead, Davide Michaud-Cromp, spoke publicly about the company's decision and suggested that the layoffs had a reason other than productivity, Ubisoft placed the studio veteran on unpaid leave and fired him a week later.
A company statement says that "respectfully expressing an opinion or feedback does not lead to dismissal." Ubisoft referred to the code of conduct that employees re-read and sign every year: when it is violated, established procedures apply, with measures escalating depending on the nature, severity and repetition of the violation.
Signatures are gathered during breaks
GWU Montreal is asking Ubisoft employees who want to support the petition to sign it in person — meeting colleagues during breaks. Every worker at the Montreal studio is invited to sign, and supporters of the campaign are asked to spread the word through their own contacts. The group calls the petition itself the "first action" of the campaign.
What lies behind the dispute over the schedule
The story looks like a local labor conflict, but against the backdrop of recent years in the industry it reads more broadly. Major publishers usually justify the demand to return to the office for a full week by the quality of team interaction; some employees see such demands as a way to cut headcount without formal layoffs — not everyone is ready to relocate or give up remote work, and a voluntary departure costs the employer less. When such a demand is announced at the same time as layoffs and studio closures, the assumption of a hidden optimization arises on its own, and it is hard to dispel with corporate wording.
That is probably also connected to the fact that the conflict has found a continuation in Montreal. In France the protest relied on a long tradition of union organizing; in North America's games industry unions are appearing noticeably later and largely as a reaction to the wave of layoffs of recent years. If the trend holds, the petition for a hybrid schedule may become the starting point of a broader bargaining campaign, where the subject of the dispute will be not only the schedule but also job security.
For professionals the practical conclusion is this: the work arrangement is increasingly becoming a subject of collective bargaining on par with pay and overtime. Studios that count on hiring people in Montreal's competitive market will probably have to argue their office-presence requirements in more detail than a reference to the benefits of working together.
What is behind the five-day return to office at Ubisoft Montreal: shareholder pressure, savings on rent and headcount, a management crisis after the studio closures?