Rockstar Vows to 'Vigorously' Defend Itself Against Union Claims as Tribunal Over 31 Fired GTA 6 Workers Begins

Rockstar Games, the developer behind GTA 6, is set to appear before an employment tribunal today to face allegations from a union that it unlawfully dismissed 31 workers in October last year.

The hearing, which starts this morning at Glasgow Employment Tribunal, will examine claims made by the Independent Workers of Great Britain union (IWGB) — claims Rockstar strongly denies. The IWGB will argue that the staff, all of whom were working on GTA 6, were unlawfully blacklisted and targeted for their union activities, and that the manner of their dismissal was also unlawful because, the union says, it occurred without disciplinary process or right of appeal.

Rockstar maintains that the employees were fired for leaking GTA 6 game features on Discord, not for trying to unionize. In total, 34 staff members were dismissed — 31 in the UK and three in Canada — prompting protests outside Rockstar North in Edinburgh, Scotland, and parent company Take-Two in London.

In a new statement to IGN, a Rockstar Games spokesperson insisted the studio is ready to defend itself. The statement reads:

“Rockstar Games' position has been clear and consistent throughout. Individuals across the UK and Canada were dismissed for gross misconduct following the sharing of confidential company information, not because of alleged trade union membership or activity. We reject the claims and will defend them vigorously before the tribunal.”

The hearing will run until October 16, a month before GTA 6 launches. The workers are seeking reinstatement or, failing that, compensation, as well as a tribunal finding that their dismissals were unfair. The IWGB alleges that on the day of the dismissals, employees were called into meetings, told they were being fired with immediate effect and escorted from the building. Workers not at the office claim they were informed during phone calls lasting around two minutes before being locked out of their work accounts. The IWGB also alleges that one dismissed worker, Will Mesilane, had to leave the UK and return to Australia after Rockstar withdrew his work visa and reported him to the Home Office, without giving him a chance to appeal.

Jason Lewis, former Rockstar employee and IWGB member, commented: “For almost a year, the truth about what happened to us has been buried by Rockstar and surrounded by speculation. Now we finally get the chance to put it on the record. None of us imagined that talking to each other about our working conditions would turn our lives upside down and catapult us into the centre of a global media storm. As the world prepares for the release of GTA 6, we are reliving the heartbreak of being thrown out of a project we poured so much of our lives into. We lost our jobs, our income, our community and the chance to see the game through to release after spending years helping to build it. It was devastating.

“We have fought tooth and nail to get to this point, not just to be able to win justice for ourselves, but to draw a line in the sand for any employer that thinks it can attack workers for unionising. It has been an emotional journey and it is not over yet, but we can now see the finish line, and justice at last feels within reach.”

Rockstar Games insists there is no link to union activity, and that at the time of the dismissals it didn’t know the fired individuals were involved with a union. As for the Discord comments at the heart of the case, Rockstar says they concerned GTA 6 features, overall progress and launch timelines, as well as company IT security protocols. Rockstar believes that if the Discord comments had leaked, they would have been major gaming news and might even have affected Take-Two’s share price. When Rockstar officially announced that GTA 6 would be delayed by six months to November 19, 2026, Take-Two’s market value plummeted $3.75 billion in a single day.

Rockstar has also pointed to its well-established zero-tolerance approach to leaks, noting that it dismissed an employee in Lincoln, UK in April 2025 for allegedly disclosing confidential GTA 6 information to a third party who published it on social media, and dismissed an employee in the U.S. in November 2023 and another in India in November 2025 for two separate leaks.

Rockstar’s confidentiality rules are known to be stricter than those at many other companies, and it insists every employee understands this. As is well documented, Rockstar is a very secretive company — indeed, Rhys Elliot, head of market analysis at Alinea Analytics, recently told IGN that the celebrated developer has a “near-pathological” approach to confidentiality. Rockstar maintains that the Discord channel where the comments were posted was not private for employees only, but contained hundreds of people, including, it alleges, employees of rival game developers, a game industry journalist, and other unidentifiable members. The IWGB denies this, insisting the Discord channel was private.

Last month, the fired Rockstar workers told fans not to boycott GTA 6 in protest on their behalf, but instead to buy T-shirts launched to raise money for their legal costs. Meanwhile, negotiations continue between Rockstar and the IWGB over formal union recognition, even amid this legal battle. The union is seeking greater pay transparency, protection from post-release layoffs, an end to "crunch," and improved flexible working arrangements. If an agreement is reached, Rockstar would become the biggest recognised unionised game studio in the UK. Workers hope to secure recognition before GTA 6 launches.

Alex Marshall, president of the IWGB, 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. As the world gets its first proper look at GTA 6, this hearing will give people a chance to look behind the scenes at what happened to the workers who helped make it.

“That is why this hearing matters for every worker across the UK, whether their job is in entertainment, education or anywhere else. It is a moment to send a clear message to each of them: you have the right to join a union, that right is protected by law, and employers cannot punish you for exercising it.

“If Rockstar can get away with firing workers for organising, then every employer in Britain gets the message that they can do the same. We cannot let that happen.”