Canadian union taking legal action against Microsoft over Bethesda layoffs

Unions in the U.S. and Canada are seeking legal action against Microsoft over the company’s handling of its recent mass layoffs at Xbox.

Earlier this month, the company cut 1,600 jobs and confirmed plans to axe an additional 1,600 over the next year. This included reductions at id Software (Doom), Bethesda (The Elder Scrolls) and Obsidian (The Outer Worlds), as well as the divestiture of five studios, including Montreal-based Compulsion (South of Midnight).

The layoffs led to protests at various Xbox studios, including Bethesda’s main offices in Rockville, Maryland and its support studio in Montreal, the latter of which lost 12 employees last week. All the while, unions are accusing Microsoft of improper labour practices by not notifying employees or talking with unions prior to the terminations.

Carmel Smyth, the president of CWA Canada union that represents Bethesda Game Studios Montreal and other Canadian developers, slammed Microsoft for the layoffs.

“The unions CWA and CWA Canada have jointly filed unfair labor practice complaints against Microsoft alleging the company has unlawfully fired people without giving notice to or discussing it with the union as the employer is legally obliged to do when we are in the middle of ongoing bargaining a collective agreement,” said Smyth in a statement to Game Developer.

In the U.S., CWA has also filed a charge against Microsoft and subsidiaries like Xbox, Bethesda Game Studios and id Software alleging failure to communication with the union and engaging in bad faith bargaining.

Microsoft, for its part, told Game Developer that “we respect our employees’ right to make their voices heard” and said it has reached out “to begin effects bargaining.” But of course, that doesn’t address the unions’ accusations that the company failed to abide by its legal requirements to do all of this prior to the layoffs.

In general, there have been a lot of people coming out to say that Microsoft’s handling of these layoffs has been particularly callous. In a separate report, Game Developer cited multiple sources who accused Microsoft of giving brief meetings (sometimes as short as 60 seconds) in which employees weren’t able to ask any questions and swiftly cutting off access to internal communications like Slack.

That Game Developer report also examined the long-term ramifications these layoffs will have. For instance, id Software is renowned for making its beloved and iconic Doom series on its celebrated id Tech engine. But Microsoft axed about 50 per cent of the studio, or nearly 140 people, including many of the technical employees with years of knowledge surrounding id Tech. This has led the remaining staff to question how they can properly carry on, having lost so much talent. (This is to say nothing of having to worry about the looming threat of 1,600 further layoffs and whether they or their colleagues will be included in that.)

This all comes after new Xbox CEO Asha Sharma said the business was not healthy due to declining console sales and Xbox Game Pass growth and required a major “reset.” Sharma says the goal now is to focus on the bigger franchises like Fallout, all while gutting the teams like Obsidian that have been tasked to produce these titles. But hey, at least Microsoft can still afford to invest many billions into AI.

Image credit: Bethesda

Source: Game Developer