French union STJV has called for Don’t Nod employees to strike following the announcement that up to 69 employees’ jobs could be in danger yesterday.
In a financial summary released yesterday, Don’t Nod reiterated that the studio has had a pretty trying time so far this year, once again pointing to the underperformance of first-half releases Jusant and Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden as motivating factors.
That release also confirms that “up to 69 jobs” may be at risk in what the studio is calling a “reorganization project to safeguard its competitiveness in an increasingly demanding and competitive ecosystem”, but STJV isn’t happy with this announcement or the way it was made to employees.
In a statement issued shortly after the layoffs were announced, STJV says the layoffs constitute “the climax of a series of catastrophic decisions” which have been “denounced for a long time by workers’ representatives”.
According to STJV, Don’t Nod workers’ representatives were informed about the layoffs in a meeting yesterday. They “were not told in advance about the meeting’s topic”, and they also weren’t provided with “any documents and information” prior to the meeting.
STJV says Don’t Nod employees have been raising alarms about the company’s situation for over a year, and that former HR head Matthieu Hoffman described layoffs as “unimaginable” (STJV’s quote, not Hoffman’s) in summer, just three months before yesterday’s announcement.
The union also says that Don’t Nod management is hiding its “failures” and “inconsistent decisions” behind “excuses” like the state of the economy and the competitive nature of the gaming industry.
In its message, STJV points not only to the aforementioned issues, but also “the absence of social dialogue, the increasing consequences on workers’ health, the obstacles to workers’ representatives exercising their mandate, [and] the chaotic productions” of Don’t Nod games.
The union calls for “a social movement like the one currently happening at Ubisoft“, calling on Don’t Nod employees to “mobilize to save their jobs and working conditions”. Strong words indeed. We’ll have to wait and see if they bear fruit.
