A Scottish employment tribunal has denied a request for interim reduction for Grand Theft Auto 6 builders fired by Rockstar in October 2025, saying they didn’t adequately display a probability that the ultimate ruling on the matter will discover that the previous workers have been fired due to their union membership or actions.
“The Glasgow Employment Tribunal has rejected the union’s software for interim reduction,” a Rockstar spokesperson stated in a press release supplied to PC Gamer. “We welcome the choice, which is per Rockstar’s place all through.
“We remorse that we have been put ready the place dismissals have been essential, however we stand by our plan of action as supported by the end result of this listening to.”
Rockstar fired greater than 30 GTA 6 builders in October 2025, initially accusing them of “gross misconduct” after which later alleging that they shared confidential data in a publicly-accessible Discord channel.
The Unbiased Staff of Nice Britain union, nevertheless, claimed the staff have been solely talking with labor organizers, and that the firings represented “one of the blatant and ruthless acts of union busting within the historical past of the video games business.” The IWGB initiated authorized motion towards Rockstar in November 2025, after the union claimed Rockstar refused to “resolve the matter by way of negotiation.”
Public opinion hasn’t been on Rockstar’s facet: The IWGB has staged protests outdoors Rockstar workplaces, greater than 200 Rockstar workers wrote in help of their fired colleagues, and even the UK authorities weighed in: Edinburgh West MP Christine Jardine urged fellow Ministers to “help staff who’ve misplaced their jobs, and cease this from taking place once more,” whereas Prime Minister Keir Starmer referred to as it “a deeply regarding case” and promised ministers would look into it.
The denial of interim reduction is a loss for the fired workers—one former Rockstar employee referred to as it a “intestine punch”—however solely in a restricted sense. The ruling notes that the IWGB Discord had roughly 350 members, greater than half of whom have been members of the IWGB itself, and that no less than one had beforehand written “press articles about videogames,” together with no less than about Rockstar itself. It additionally acknowledges that three of the fired workers have been Canadian, and never members of the IWGB—and thus, “their commerce union membership couldn’t due to this fact have been an element of their dismissal.” That is all consistent with Rockstar’s prior allegations.
On the similar time, nevertheless, the ruling additionally notes that the terminations got here in a short time, with little or no discover, and with out disciplinary hearings, suspensions, or a chance to answer the allegations of wrongdoing. A number of the individuals fired had “posted little or no” within the Discord, whereas others hadn’t posted in additional than a yr, and “there was no proof of [Rockstar] having suffered any antagonistic penalties because of these postings.”
It additionally states that the bar for profitable interim reduction is greater than what’s going to apply on the closing listening to, “and displays partially the implications of an award of interim reduction being made earlier than the Tribunal has heard examined proof.” The ruling is an “interim choice,” and the denial of reduction at this stage “doesn’t decide the ultimate consequence of the case.”
In a press release supplied to PC Gamer, the IWGB stated the choice “is disappointing however does nothing to dampen our hopes of profitable justice when the total listening to takes place.”
“We have now all the time been clear that Interim Reduction is an extremely excessive bar to fulfill as a brief measure earlier than the substantive tribunal, and it will have been virtually unprecedented for a Choose to award this to a gaggle of this measurement,” the IWGB stated. “That we didn’t safe an interim reduction order means the particularly stringent circumstances required for this type of listening to weren’t met, however does nothing to recommend that Rockstar won’t be discovered responsible of unfair dismissal when the case goes to trial.”
