A group of staff sacked by the makers of Grand Theft Auto (GTA) have been refused pay relief by a judge.

Rockstar Games fired the employees from its UK studios for gross misconduct, accusing them of sharing confidential information in a public server on the Discord chat app.

The workers, who claim they lost their jobs for attempting to unionise, launched legal action against the company and applied for interim relief – meaning they would continue to be paid until the case concluded.

But a tribunal in Glasgow said it could not grant the measure – known as interim relief – because it could not be sure the case would succeed when it goes to a full hearing.

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.

However, the judge said it was not possible to conclude whether union membership was the “principal reason” for the workers’ sackings.

The judgement said the company denied knowing whether members of the Discord were paid-up union members, and that it also dismissed three Canadian employees who were not part of the IWGB.

Rockstar’s lawyers had stated that “issues of urgency and ongoing confidentiality concerns” were factors in the speed of the dismissals, according to the ruling.

The interim relief hearing was held in advance of a full tribunal, which will hear evidence from both sides at a later date.

“Whether the respondent’s reason and/or explanation withstand scrutiny at the final hearing may determine whether the claimants are ultimately successful in their claims,” Eccles wrote.

In response to the verdict, IWGB president Alex Marshall said that securing interim relief was an “incredibly high bar” to clear.

He said the union had come out of the 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”.

A Rockstar spokesperson said the company “welcomed the decision”, which was consistent with Rockstar’s position throughout.

“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,” they said.

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