Rockstar vs. Union: We Went to Court and Saw the Evidence

TL;DR

The judge denied interim relief to 34 fired union members, meaning Rockstar won the first round while workers face immediate financial and visa consequences.

Key Points

• 1.Rockstar fired 34 employees in a single day (~6 hours), all union members, labeling it "gross misconduct" — no disciplinary hearings were held and workers weren't told an investigation was underway.
• 2.Union barrister Lord John Hendy (veteran of the 1984 miners' strike) argued the firings were a "smokescreen" and "mass execution" timed to drop union membership below the critical 10% statutory recognition threshold.
• 3.Rockstar gained access to the private Discord by using login credentials borrowed from an informant employee at their Lincoln studio, despite publicly calling it a "public" server.
• 4.The "top secret GTA VI feature" Rockstar's barrister refused to read aloud in court turned out to be union members discussing that a 32-player QA session made it hard to approve time-off requests.
• 5.One fired employee was dismissed based on a single 15-word Discord message: "Nothing that I've heard in North QA! Will keep you updated if that changes of course."
• 6.Rockstar's barrister Andrew Burns argued the firings weren't union-related because 3 Canadian employees (non-union members) were also fired, and other active union members who posted in the Discord were NOT fired.
• 7.Some fired employees were on company-sponsored visas; Rockstar immediately notified the Home Office upon dismissal, triggering a 3-month departure order — interim relief was their only short-term legal lifeline to stay.
• 8.The judge ruled she was "not persuaded it appears likely" the final hearing would find the dismissals unlawful, refusing interim relief — this is not a final verdict, just a preliminary assessment.
• 9.Rockstar called the ruling "consistent with our position throughout"; the union called it a "gut-punch" and vowed to continue to the full hearing, which could be months or years away given UK court backlogs.