An employment tribunal has today rejected an application for interim relief filed on behalf of the fired Grand Theft Auto 6 developers at Rockstar Games.
The Glasgow Employment Tribunal released the outcome of the hearing today, rejecting all applications for interim relief. “We welcome the decision, which is consistent with Rockstar’s position throughout," a Rockstar Games spokesperson told IGN. “We regret that we were put in a position where dismissals were necessary, but we stand by our course of action as supported by the outcome of this hearing.”
Rockstar has insisted the employees it fired late last year were dismissed because they leaked game features for upcoming and unannounced titles in Discord, not because they were trying to unionize. 34 members of staff at Rockstar were dismissed, 31 in the UK and three in Canada, sparking protests outside the office of GTA 6 developer Rockstar North in Edinburgh, Scotland, and outside parent company Take-Two’s office in London.
The Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB), which had accused Rockstar of “union-busting,” asked a judge to grant the fired GTA 6 developers interim relief at a preliminary employment tribunal hearing held in the UK last week. Interim relief is a legal mechanism that can provide workers with support while they wait for a full hearing. If the interim relief had been granted, the workers would have been put back on Rockstar’s payroll and had their work visas reinstated where necessary.
In the ruling, Judge Eccles said that of the approximately 350 members of the IWGB Discord, over half were members of the IWGB, but some were no longer employed by Rockstar Games. One member was said to have written press articles about video games, including at least one that commented on Rockstar and the development of GTA. Judge Eccles added that because Rockstar dismissed three employees in Canada who were not members of the union, their union membership could not have been a factor in their dismissal.
According to information provided to IGN by a Rockstar Games spokesperson, the ruling indicates that Judge Eccles believes that the IWGB is not “likely” to show that union activity or membership was the reason for their dismissal.
Lord John Hendy KC, who represents the fired developers, argued it was not “gross misconduct” to share confidential information in a group containing external third parties, even as a matter of principle, but Rockstar insisted this claim was not credible. Lord Hendy KC also suggested there was ‘no leak’ of information, at best only a ‘risk’ of leak. However, Rockstar said that posting confidential information in a public forum constitutes a 'leak’ because that information was shared with people outside of Rockstar, including individuals who work at competitors and with journalists.
Rockstar has also denied having a “blacklist” of union members, stressing that at the time of the dismissals, the company did not know whether the claimants were union members, so could not have targeted them.
And, as it has said before, Rockstar employees themselves raised concerns to the company and granted representatives access to the “social” channel, not the Discord channel used for official union organizing. As IGN has also reported, Rockstar has claimed that the union channel mods didn’t know who was in the channel, and that it posed a leak risk.
As for the alleged leaked information, Rockstar believes it to be significant and related to game features around GTA 6. This includes specific game features, comments on the overall progress of GTA 6 development, timelines to launch, and company IT security protocols. Rockstar believes that if the comments in question had leaked they would have been big 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, the market value of Take-Two plummeted $3.75 billion in a single day.
And Rockstar has pointed to its well-established zero tolerance approach to leaks, highlighting that it dismissed a Rockstar employee in Lincoln, UK in April 2025, who it alleged disclosed confidential information about GTA 6 to a third party who published the information to social media, and dismissed an employee in the U.S. in November 2023 and another in India in November 2025 for two separate acts of information leaking. Rockstar said that many of the claimants accepted in the Discord server that their comments might not have aligned with Rockstar’s policies on confidentiality and security, which it believes to be a sign they were aware of the company’s zero-tolerance approach.
The IWGB issued IGN with a lengthy statement in response to the ruling:
"The judge’s decision - that Rockstar will not be forced into providing emergency support to our members whilst they await trial - is disappointing but does nothing to dampen our hopes of winning justice when the full hearing takes place.
"In fact, we are emerging from this hearing, having now had a glimpse of Rockstar’s flimsy grounds for defence, feeling bolstered in our claims that these firings were not just deeply unjust but also plainly unlawful. The judge stated in her ruling that: ‘There was no evidence of the respondent having suffered any adverse consequences as a result of these postings.'
"It was also highlighted in the ruling that many procedural guidelines were broken in the process of firing these employees, including there being no disciplinary meetings, no chance for appeal until six weeks later, and no evidence of an investigation. Comments relied on by Rockstar’s lawyers were obtained without the knowledge of employees using Discord, described by the claimants as 'covert monitoring.'
"We have always been clear that Interim Relief is an incredibly high bar to meet as a temporary measure before the substantive tribunal, and it would have been almost unprecedented for a Judge to award this to a group of this size. That we did not secure an interim relief order means the especially stringent conditions required for this kind of hearing were not met, but does nothing to suggest that Rockstar will not be found guilty of unfair dismissal when the case goes to trial.
"The facts of the matter remain shocking, such as how Rockstar management have now admitted to covertly monitoring their employees on this private Discord by impersonating a member of staff. Rather than focusing their case on evidence that Rockstar acted fairly and reasonably in their decision to fire 31 people on the spot, the argument resided largely on legal technicalities, with Rockstar's lawyers declaring that it doesn’t matter if the dismissals were unfair, or if the leadership that dismissed them acted with malice.
"Such an approach is wholly in keeping with what we already know of Rockstar’s utter disregard for the people whose creativity and hard work deliver its billions.
"We remain confident in the strength of our case against Rockstar Games and we reiterate our firm belief that Rockstar broke the law when it summarily dismissed 31 union members. We look forward to the day we face them in court."
Alex Marshall, President of the IWGB added: "Despite being refused interim relief today, we’ve come out of last week’s hearing more confident than ever that a full and substantive tribunal will find Rockstar’s calculated attempt to crush a union to be not only unjust but unlawful. The fact that we were granted this hearing speaks to the strength of our case and, over the course of the two-day hearing, Rockstar consistently failed to back up claims made in the press or to refute that they acted unfairly, maliciously, and in breach of their own procedures.
"They’ve shown their hand and also shone a light on their own callousness and incompetence. Given the outpouring of public support over the last few months, from Paris to New York, the world knows that Rockstar is in the wrong and their disregard for workers will cast a long shadow over the release of GTA6. This hearing could have alleviated the hardships faced by those in financial precarity or forced to leave the country as a result of Rockstar’s actions but we remain undeterred in our efforts to hold them to account."
The IWGB also provided a statement attributed to a former Rockstar employee: "This decision to fail to award IR is a gut-punch to everyone legitimately engaged in trade union activities. The real world consequences of this are forcing valuable people to leave this country, upending their families and destroying their lives, and all because of the actions of a ruthless uncaring employer’s quest to crush a trade union. We’ll continue the fight to clear our names, regain our jobs and put an end to this chapter of our lives.
"Throughout all this, the bonds we have made with those who were unlawfully fired have kept us all strong. The kindness, compassion and dedication we have all shown to each other is heartwarming and a reminder that we are all fighting for workers rights. This decision, while not in our favour, is not an exoneration of Rockstar’s behaviour and actions. Merely a stumbling block on the road to justice."
Union busting has consequences! UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer says the government will look into @RockstarGames's dismissal of 31 union members. pic.twitter.com/4EEM9NvcR7
— IWGB Game Workers (@IWGB_GW) December 10, 2025
The ruling comes after UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer called the case “deeply concerning," and pledged that ministers would investigate. The layoffs were raised by Rockstar North's local MP Chris Murray in the UK's Parliament during a session of Prime Minister's Questions that took place late last year.
"The video games company Rockstar in my constituency last month fired 31 employees without providing evidence or union representation," Murray told the Prime Minister. "The [Independent Workers Union of Great Britain] IWGB alleges union busting. Having met Rockstar they failed to reassure me they are following employment law and I share concerns about union busting.
"Given this government is responsible for the biggest increase in workers rights in a generation," Murray continued, "does the Prime Minister agree all companies regardless of profit size must follow UK employment law and all workers have the right to join a union?"
"It's a deeply concerning case," Starmer replied. "Every worker has the right to join a trade union and we're determined to strengthen workers rights and ensure they don't face unfair consequences for being part of a union. Our ministers will look into the particular case that he [Murray] raises and will keep him updated."
Photo by CHRIS DELMAS/AFP via Getty Images.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
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