Rockstar HR manager tells tribunal he had 'little interest' in union chats
A senior Rockstar manager told a workplace court he had "little interest" in union chats between staff that were secretly sent to him.
Charlie Kinloch, human resources manager and co-studio operations director at Rockstar Lincoln, gave the evidence at the Glasgow Tribunals Centre, where a case brought as Rockstar Games vs Garland & Others is being heard. Eurogamer
The case centres on 31 former Rockstar employees represented by the Independent Workers' Union of Great Britain, or IWGB, a trade union. They claim they were targeted and unlawfully dismissed as part of efforts to stop union organising. Rockstar says the staff were fired for gross misconduct, a serious breach of workplace rules, and for leaking confidential information.
The dispute follows the dismissal of 34 staff in November 2025. Thirty-one of those staff were based in the United Kingdom and are covered by the IWGB claim. Eurogamer
Much of Kinloch's testimony concerned messages sent to him by an anonymous employee known in proceedings as AB. AB forwarded Discord discussions about union organising, distributing leaflets and complaints about the workplace. Those messages were later classed as evidence of gross misconduct and used in part to dismiss employees.
Kinloch said he had only a "broad" interest in general union activity where it affected the work of line managers. He said his priority was what he described as "disparagement and misinformation about Rockstar", not the union conversations themselves.
He said he viewed the material in light of the scrutiny on Rockstar before the release of Grand Theft Auto 6. That scrutiny, he said, was unprecedented.
He denied targeting union members. But he was accused of misleading the court over a statement made at an interim relief hearing in January, an early hearing where dismissed staff can ask for pay and contracts to continue while a case is decided.
Kinloch had first stated he did not know the employees were IWGB members. He later said he had no way of knowing "definitively" which employees were members. Lawyers for the former staff questioned the change in wording.
The final hearing in Glasgow is expected to run until 16 October 2026. Game Developer The tribunal will then decide whether the dismissals were unlawful.
