Following a hearing last week, a judgement was released outlining the arguments made and the reasons for refusing the claim.
Judge Frances Eccles said the claim involved 29 employees from Rockstar’s UK offices in Edinburgh, Dundee and Lincoln – all of whom were members of the game worker’s branch of the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB).
She said the staff were dismissed on 30 and 31 October last year and told they had shared confidential information on a publicly accessible platform in breach of their contracts.
About 350 people, including former employees, had access to the IWGB Discord server, similar to a web forum, containing open and closed channels limited to union members, the judgement said.
It said the staff were “informed of their dismissals with very little, if any, notice and in quick succession” without suspensions, disciplinary hearings, or the chance to respond to allegations before they were dismissed.
The tribunal said that some of those sacked from the company had posted few messages on the server or, in some cases, last posted over a year ago.
“There was no evidence of the respondent having suffered any adverse consequences as a result of these postings,” the judge said.
Staff were also not informed of the comments regarded as gross misconduct until about six weeks after their dismissal, she added.
