The tribunal over Rockstar Games' mass firing of Grand Theft Auto VI developers reached one of its most important days yet on October 9. A senior Rockstar HR figure spent hours under cross-examination over an anonymous "mole" inside the workers' union Discord. The claimants' lawyers also pressed him on why the company fired the group only as their union neared a key recognition threshold with the hearing running just weeks before GTA 6 launches on November 19.
Charlie Kinloch, HR manager and co-studio operations director at Rockstar Lincoln, told the Glasgow Tribunals Centre he held only a "broad" interest in unionisation as far as it affected the work of line managers, adding that he had "little interest" in union conversations between individual employees. His priority, he said, was "disparagement and misinformation about Rockstar," and the claimants' lawyers spent the day testing that account.
For those new to the case, this all started after Rockstar fired 34 workers across the UK and Canada on October 30, 2025, 31 of them union members. The Independent Workers' Union of Great Britain (IWGB), which represents the claimants, calls it the "most blatant and ruthless act of union busting in the history of the games industry." Rockstar maintains the opposite, that it dismissed all 34 for gross misconduct after they shared confidential information, including GTA 6 details, on a Discord server the company treated as a leak risk.
Now that's settled, let's go back to the topic at hand. Much of the cross-examination turned on whether Kinloch misled the court, pointing back to a statement he gave at a January interim relief hearing. He first said he did not know which staff were IWGB members. A later statement said he had no way of knowing "definitively" which employees belonged to the union. The claimants argue that added word was a deliberate attempt to mislead. Kinloch disputes that and said the extra word may have come in when he was asked to give further context.
The day then centered on the mole. The claimants allege an anonymous employee, known in the hearing as "AB," sent Kinloch information they believed would interest him, including Discord discussions of union organising, leaflet distribution and workplace complaints. Those messages were later marked as evidence of gross misconduct and used in part to dismiss staff.
According to Eurogamer's report from the hearing, Kinloch rejected the idea that the messages identified specific people as IWGB members. Pressed on why disparaging comments first brought to his attention in early 2024 led to action only about 18 months later, he pointed to the pressure around the launch. "I viewed those messages with the scrutiny Rockstar Games was under in the run up to GTA6, which was unprecedented," he said, adding that if the comments went public they could "deal the company damage."
He also named other Discord activity he treated as security risks, including a proposed union Twitter account and members' plans to speak with Bloomberg's Jason Schreier and The Guardian's Keza Macdonald. The membership, he told the tribunal, "was expanding at an exponential rate," with many October joiners anonymous to the company.
The two sides of the Rockstar tribunal
Claimants and the IWGB allege | Rockstar maintains |
|---|---|
The 34 firings were union busting, timed as membership neared the 10 percent recognition threshold | The dismissals were for gross misconduct, specifically leaking confidential company information |
An anonymous mole, "AB," fed HR screenshots of union activity from early 2024 | AB passed the information on voluntarily, not at Rockstar's direction |
Workers got no real notice of the allegations or chance to respond | A culture of confidentiality protects GTA 6, so trust had irretrievably broken down |
The timing points to retaliation for organizing | Three non-union workers in Canada were fired for similar conduct, evidence it was not about the union |
An active case with no ruling yet, these are the competing claims the Glasgow tribunal is weighing.
The claimants argue the information reaching Kinloch showed the union was about 12 members short of the 10 percent threshold for statutory recognition and that the firings arrived right as that line approached. Kinloch maintained he did not track the group's union status and was focused on leak risk. Rockstar says AB passed on the information voluntarily. AB will not appear as a witness, which the claimants' lawyer argued should invite an "adverse inference."
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At the end of the day, no ruling is close. The final hearing began in September and is expected to run until around October 16, with more Rockstar management witnesses still to testify. Only after it closes will the tribunal decide whether the dismissals were lawful misconduct cases or unlawful retaliation for organizing. All the while, Rockstar remains stern in its public posiion. The company describes the case as protecting its culture of confidentiality around GTA 6 and points to three non-union workers in Canada dismissed for similar conduct as evidence the firings were not about the union.
We covered the tribunal's start and the background to the firings and Rockstar's claim that even the online player format counts as a closely guarded secret. The October 9 testimony is the first time the man who received the Discord information has answered for it in open court.
For the fired developers, the stakes remain as high as ever. They are seeking reinstatement or compensation, along with a finding on whether a union drive can survive inside one of gaming's most secretive studios. For Rockstar the case plays out in the same weeks it ships the biggest launch in its history. The tribunal continues next week.