Rockstar GamesRockstar Games is facing legal action from the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB), accusing the Grand Theft Auto 6 developer of “union busting” by firing staff who were attempting to unionize.
Rockstar fired between 30 and 40 employees across in late October, citing “gross misconduct.” At the time, the IWGB accused the studio of “union busting,” claiming all affected workers were part of a private Discord used to organize the newly forming Rockstar Games Workers Union.
Take-Two Interactive denied those claims, telling Bloomberg the dismissals were for “gross misconduct, and for no other reason.” Days later, Rockstar said the staff were caught “leaking company secrets,” insisting the terminations were “in no way related to people’s right to join a union or engage in union activities.”
IWGB files legal claim against Rockstar
Now, the IWGB has filed a formal legal claim, accusing Rockstar of “victimisation and collective dismissal linked to trade union activity.” The union said Rockstar refused multiple requests to meet before the claim was issued.
“Despite our representation and attempts to meet with Rockstar to resolve the matter through negotiation, Rockstar have declined and persisted to terminate members of the union in a manner that is unacceptable and unlawful,” the IWGB’s legal team told Eurogamer.
IWGB president Alex Marshall called the situation “plain and simple union busting,” adding that “private spaces such as trade union Discord servers have protections” and that company policies “do not supersede UK law.”
The legal move follows ongoing protests outside Rockstar’s Edinburgh offices, where dismissed developers told People Make Games they “just wanted to finish what [they] were working on.” Rockstar has not commented further on the legal filing.
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Grand Theft Auto 6 is currently slated to release in November 2026.