Employees at Eugen Systems, the French studio behind technique video games together with R.U.S.E. and Steel Division: Normandy 44, have ended their strike after seven weeks. After greater than a 12 months of disputes with administration over alleged issues together with unpaid contributions and ignoring situations of contracts, half of the studio went on strike in February. But negotiations have stalled and the strikers don’t suppose persevering with will change a lot, so that they’re ending the strike and taking the combat to a labour tribunal.
“We do not think we will gain any additional ground with this strike, despite the fact our grievances are simply about conforming to labour laws and collective labour agreements,” Eugen stated in Tuesday’s statement:
“Thus, we have stopped striking Tuesday, April 3rd, after more than a month a half, to conserve our resources for the future. But this clinical observation does not stop at all our determination: even if the strike is over, the struggle isn’t. We will continue to fight for our rights with the legal means at our disposal. Therefore, approximately fifteen Eugen Systems employees and ex-employees have seized the prud’hommes (French labour tribunal). We do not forget also that this movement for a betterment of everyone’s working conditions was shouldered by a collective of 24 employees out of 44 employed at the company.”
Eugen workers had raised allegations together with non-payment of medical contributions, non-payment of additional time, and contract situations going ignored, resulting in demotions and paycuts for some. After 15 months of fruitless discussions with administration, quite a few workers went on strike – after which they are saying administration didn’t even speak on to them for 2 weeks.
The strikers thanked individuals for his or her assist–private, political, and monetary–over the course of the strike. They’re nonetheless collecting donations for the strike, which will split between themselves, however will wrap that up quickly.
“We want this industry to mature, to recognize the value of our work and of our skills,” they concluded. “And we will continue to do so, whatever the intimidation attempts.”
The prospect of unionisation has gained much more consideration within the video video games trade following a GDC roundtable dialogue, as Adam explored. That had grew to become a focus of pro-union builders, who feared the International Game Developers Association moderator would set an anti-union tone. They shaped the Game Workers Unite organisation to unfold the phrase and assist individuals planning to unionise. The trade at massive has severe issues, luring individuals in with ‘dream jobs’ then burning them out with ridiculous hours and different abuses, and evidently received’t repair itself.
