Did Rockstar have an informant in the union Discord?

Both sides told the tribunal that Rockstar was receiving information from inside the server. The claimants describe a source passing screenshots, recordings and membership numbers to a senior HR manager over roughly 21 months. Rockstar acknowledges receiving information but frames it as security monitoring. The tribunal has made no finding.

What is Rockstar's defence at the tribunal?

That the dismissals were for gross misconduct over confidentiality rather than union activity; that the company is hypervigilant after the 2022 leak; that the Discord had more than 300 members including non-employees and a journalist; and that three non-union employees in Canada were also dismissed.

When does the Rockstar tribunal end?

The hearing is listed to 16 October 2026, sitting weekdays. The judgment will be published on the UK government's tribunal decisions service.

Both sides lay out their case: an informant, a threshold, and twelve days

The first week of the Glasgow hearing produced the clearest picture yet of what each side is actually arguing. One detail is not in dispute: Rockstar was receiving information from inside the union’s Discord server. What that information was for is the whole case.

Everything below is a submission to a tribunal, not a finding by one. These are the arguments each side has put forward in the opening days of a five-week hearing. No evidence has been weighed, no witness has been cross-examined in what is reported here, and the tribunal has decided nothing. Read it as two competing accounts, because that is what it is.

What the claimants allege

The dismissed workers' case, as set out to the tribunal:

An informant inside the union Discord. The claimants say a junior employee passed information about union activity to a senior HR manager over roughly 21 months, beginning around February 2024 — described in reporting as screenshots, recordings, membership counts and the identities of individual union activists.
A recognition threshold, then dismissals. The union needed 10 percent membership to seek recognition. The claimants say that threshold was reached on 18 October 2025, that it was reported internally within days, and that the dismissals followed on 30 October — twelve days later.
No process. In the claimants' own words: “Not only was no Claimant told what was the case against them, neither was any Claimant given an opportunity to answer it.”
The effect. They say the dismissals targeted union leaders, and that membership fell back below the 10 percent threshold within two weeks.

Accounts differ slightly on the exact date the threshold was reported internally — one report says 20 October, another 22. We have not resolved that and are not going to pick one.

What Rockstar argues

Rockstar's case, as reported:

It does not dispute that it was receiving information. The company has acknowledged accessing the Discord's announcements and general channels in October 2025 through an employee and a vice president of security, and has referred to people who reported security concerns — one of them active for over two and a half years.
Security, not union-busting. Rockstar says it has become “hypervigilant” after previous breaches, including the 2022 Grand Theft Auto VI leak, which it says was obtained through phishing.
Conduct. The company characterises the messages as “open and vituperatively disparaging” about managers and the company.
The Discord was not private. Rockstar says the server had more than 300 members, including former employees, people working for competitors, and a journalist.
Non-union dismissals. Rockstar emphasises that it also dismissed three non-union employees in Canada who were in the same Discord, which it argues shows the action was not driven by union membership.

What is actually in dispute

Strip it back and the disagreement is narrower than the headlines suggest, which makes it easier to follow for the next five weeks.

The points of agreement and disagreement, as things stand.
Question	Status
Was Rockstar receiving information from inside the union Discord?	Not in dispute. Both sides say yes.
For how long?	Claimants say roughly 21 months. Rockstar has referred to a source active over two and a half years.
What was it for?	This is the case. Security monitoring, or surveillance of union organising.
Why were people dismissed?	Disputed. Gross misconduct over confidentiality, or trade union activity.
Was there a disciplinary process?	Claimants say none. Rockstar's answer on this point has not been reported in detail.

A note on naming

Trade reporting has named the HR manager the claimants say received the information. We have not repeated the name here. The allegation is against Rockstar as an employer, the tribunal has found nothing against any individual, and the name adds nothing a reader needs. If the tribunal makes findings about a named person, that changes and we will report it.

How many people

Reporting this week refers to 34 developers dismissed, while the IWGB puts the number of claimants at 31. Those are different measures and both can be right — not everyone dismissed necessarily brought a claim. We flagged the discrepancy yesterday and this is the likeliest explanation, though no source states it directly.

What happens now

The hearing runs to 16 October, sitting weekdays. Evidence and cross-examination follow the opening submissions, which is where arguments either survive or do not.

The judgment will be published on the UK government's tribunal decisions service, in full and in the tribunal's own words. That is the document worth waiting for, and it is the one this site will link to. Full background on the dispute.

Both Sides Lay Out Their Case at the Rockstar Tribunal