GTA 6 union dispute: Rockstar's 2025 firings explained

Almost a year after Rockstar Games fired 34 staff in the UK and Canada, the argument over why it did so is still open. The fired workers and the Independent Workers' Union of Great Britain (IWGB) say it was union busting. Rockstar and Take-Two say it was gross misconduct involving leaked confidential information. A Glasgow employment tribunal hears closing arguments on November 17 and 18, the two days before GTA 6 launches, and Rockstar staff vote on union recognition from November 12 to November 26.

October 30, 2025: the firings

Bloomberg broke the story. As PC Gamer summarised, between 30 and 40 employees across several UK and Canadian offices were let go on October 30, 2025, and every one of them belonged to a private union chat group on Discord. The IWGB called it "the most ruthless act of union busting in the history of the UK games industry" and promised to fight for every member's reinstatement.

Take-Two rejected that account straight away. Its communications head, Alan Lewis, said Rockstar "terminated a small number of individuals for gross misconduct, and for no other reason." He would not say how many people were fired or what they had done.

Later reporting put the total at 34: 31 in the UK and three in Canada, according to TechRadar. Game Developer describes the group as 31 union members and three non-members. Nobody disputes that the firings happened, since Take-Two confirmed them on the record. The dispute is over the reason.

Late 2025: protests, Parliament and duelling statements

The IWGB held protests outside Take-Two and Rockstar offices in London and Edinburgh within days, and more than 200 Rockstar employees delivered letters asking management to reinstate their colleagues. In November the union filed legal claims alleging "trade union victimisation and blacklisting." Edinburgh West MP Christine Jardine raised the case in Parliament, and in December Prime Minister Keir Starmer called it "a deeply concerning case."

Rockstar then gave a fuller explanation. It said the group "distributed and discussed confidential information (including specific game features from upcoming and unannounced titles) in a public forum." IGN, cited by TechRadar, reported that Rockstar also claimed the Discord included a games journalist, an employee of a rival studio and several anonymous members. The IWGB said the statement was "littered with falsehoods and disinformation." Its spokesperson Jake Thomas denied that any journalists were in the server, though he admitted one union official had written a couple of newspaper articles, and said the chat was about working conditions. Rockstar's answer: "they have no idea who was in this Discord."

The delay that moved GTA 6 to November 19, 2026 came shortly after the firings. TechRadar notes it is unclear whether the two are connected, and nothing on the record links them. Our release date timeline covers that delay in full.

January 2026: Rockstar wins the first round

In January the Glasgow Employment Tribunal turned down the union's request for interim relief, an emergency order that would have required Rockstar to pay the fired staff before the full hearing, TechRadar reported, citing Kotaku. The judge said she could not conclude it was likely that union membership would be found to be the main reason for the dismissals. Rockstar welcomed the ruling and said it regretted being "put in a position where dismissals were necessary."

The IWGB found something to cheer in the ruling too. It pointed to the judge's finding that there was no evidence Rockstar had suffered adverse consequences from the posts. The ruling also put the Discord at around 350 members, including former Rockstar staff, at least one of whom had published articles about the company. That sits somewhere between the two sides' versions of who was in the server. The union also accused Rockstar of monitoring the server covertly by impersonating a union staff member.

June 2026: every claim goes to trial

In June, PC Gamer reported that Rockstar had lost a preliminary bid to have the blacklisting allegations struck out, which meant every IWGB claim would be heard at trial. Ellie Dunstan, one of the fired workers, called it "a huge moment."

September and October 2026: the trial

PC Gamer listed the final hearing as running from September 10 to October 15. Game Developer expected it to finish on October 16. Opening submissions shared with Game Developer set out both cases.

The claimants say Rockstar acted once the union passed the 10 percent membership threshold needed for statutory recognition. Citing Rockstar's own disclosure, they say a junior employee had been passing details of union activity to HR manager Charlie Kinloch since at least February 2024. In their timeline, the threshold was announced on the server on October 18, 2025, and reported to Kinloch on October 20 and 22. Managers received lists of staff to remove on the evening of October 29, and the dismissals began the next morning.

Rockstar says all 34 were fired for misconduct. It describes itself as "hypervigilant" about secrecy and compares protecting GTA 6's design to Apple guarding the iPhone or Coke guarding its formula.

On October 14, Rockstar HR vice president Robert Spampinato told the tribunal it was "categorically not true" that he had asked a colleague to keep tabs on union membership, The Scotsman reported. The tribunal heard that 722 posts across 109 Discord threads were cited in the misconduct case, and that 23 of the 34 dismissed staff are claimants. Earlier coverage had described the case as brought on behalf of 31 union members.

True, false or still open

• True: Rockstar fired 34 staff on October 30, 2025. The tribunal refused interim relief, and the blacklisting claims are going to trial.
• Partly true: Rockstar's claim that outsiders were in the Discord. The tribunal found at least one former employee who had written about the company, but neither side's full account has been proven.
• Still open: whether the firings were unlawful union busting, and whether a "mole" fed HR information about union activity. Rockstar denies both, and the tribunal has not ruled.
• Unconfirmed: any link between the firings and GTA 6's delay.

What comes next

Game Developer reports that voting on union recognition opens on November 12, the same day GTA 6 pre-loading begins. Rockstar's Jennifer Kolbe has said "we go where the team goes. If they want a union, they will have a union." Union committee member Easton-Steel listed the gender pay gap, changing overtime pay policies and job security after launch as the issues behind the vote. If you want more on how Take-Two talks about GTA 6, see our roundup of Strauss Zelnick's comments.

For players, nothing on record suggests the dispute affects GTA 6's November 19 launch on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. No date has been given for the tribunal's judgment.