The National Labor Relations Board has reversed a two-year rule that allowed employers–including many game developers–to require workers to sign non-disparagement clauses in order to claim their severance. This prevented former employees from discussing their former workplace, which has started to happen a lot aswork conditions across the industrylead many industries to push for unionization.
As spotted byGame Developer.com, theNLRB’s new rulingforbids employers from offering severance agreements under conditions that “broadly waive” labor rights. Game developers often had severance agreements that included non-disparagement clauses, requiring employees to keep quiet about their former employer’s work environments under strict legal penalties. This is widely seen as anti-labor as it prevents knowledge from being disseminated among workers. This, along with other non-disclosure, non-compete, andarbitration clauses, are just some of the legal maneuvers employers use to skirt labor protections.
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But in the two years since its 2020 ruling, the NLRB said it observed non-disparagement clauses as “an attempt to deter employees from exercising their statutory rights” in order to obtain a much-needed financial benefit.
“It’s long been understood by the Board and the courts that employers cannot ask individual employees to choose between receiving benefits and exercising their rights under the National Labor Relations Act,” said NLRB chairman Lauren McFerran. “Today’s decision upholds this important principle and restores longstanding precedent.”
It’s only in recent years that video game developers have come forward to speak out against the horrible work conditions they’ve been forced to work under. Crunch has always been an issue for the industry, but long hours have grown to include poor pay, poor benefits, and harassment from both managers and other employees.Ubisoftinfamouslybecame embroiled in a scandalthat saw many of its senior management accused of sexual harassment, leading to departures for both some of the accused andmany others who simply didn’t want to work in that sort of environment.
Activisionis another huge publisher accused of having toxic work environments at many of its studios, leading some of them toformunionsin response. That’s despite Activision doing seeminglyeverything it can to stop workers from fighting for their rights.
