Labour dispute
A formal dispute with workers: an unfair-labour-practice charge, a strike, or a claim over pay or conditions.
A formal dispute over pay, conditions or the right to organise shows strain in how the company treats its workers.
What it means
Workers or their union have taken formal action against the company, or the company against them: a charge with a labour board, a strike, an unfair-dismissal claim, or a dispute over pay, contracts or the right to organise. Contract and agency staff count when they work on the company's games.
How we apply it
We add it for a complaint or charge filed with a labour authority, a strike or other industrial action, or a settlement or ruling in such a dispute. The note says how it ended. Workers forming a union is not a dispute in itself and goes on the track record as an event.
Companies in the guide with it
- Nintendo
US National Labor Relations Board, 2022: unfair-labour-practice charge by a fired contract tester settled for $25,910 plus union-rights notices.
Developer and publisher · Japan · 9 games in the guide - Raven Software
QA staff struck for nearly two months in 2021-22; in 2022 the US labour board found merit in a charge that Activision withheld raises from them in retaliation for unionising.
Developer · United States · 1 game in the guide - Riot Games
May 2019: more than 150 employees walked out over Riot's use of forced arbitration for harassment and discrimination claims.
Developer and publisher · United States · 1 game in the guide - Warner Bros. Games
WB Games Inc. was one of the companies struck by SAG-AFTRA video game performers from July 2024 until a tentative deal in June 2025.
Developer and publisher · United States · 1 game in the guide