Rockstar UK staff to vote on union recognition in November

Rockstar Games' UK workforce is heading to a union vote. As Game File's Stephen Totilo reported on October 29, 2026, in a story picked up by Insider Gaming, staff will vote from November 12 to 26 on whether the IWGB (Independent Workers' Union of Great Britain) should represent more than 1,600 employees, covering nearly every role at the company's British studios.

What's on the ballot

This is a union recognition vote: if it passes, the IWGB would be able to bargain with management on the workforce's behalf. The issues the union wants to raise include:

• Pay and bonuses.
• Overtime, a topic that has followed Rockstar since the controversy over working hours in the final stretch of Red Dead Redemption 2.
• Redundancies and how they're handled.
• Flexible working.
• Policies on generative AI.

According to the IWGB, workers and management have agreed on the terms of the vote. Rockstar hasn't commented.

Key dates

• November 12: voting opens.
• November 19: GTA VI launches, with the ballot still open.
• November 26: voting closes.

A year on from the firings

The vote comes a year after Rockstar dismissed 31 UK employees in late 2025 (34 including Canada), a case now before the employment tribunal in Glasgow. The fired workers and the IWGB argue they were let go over union activity; Rockstar says they shared confidential information on a Discord server. The tribunal's judgment hasn't been made public yet.

For scale, Bloomberg has put Rockstar's total headcount at more than 4,700 people across 12 studios, so the vote covers roughly a third of the company.

Why it matters

The timing is no accident: the vote overlaps with the biggest launch in the company's history, exactly when overtime and sales bonuses matter most. The fact that management agreed the terms is also a sign the relationship with the union has shifted after a year spent in tribunals. We'll report the result once it's known, from November 26.