Employee Wives Accuse Rockstar of Unfair Working Conditions

The wives of Rockstar San Diego employees have published a letter in which they accuse the company of enforcing unfair working conditions on their husbands. They threaten legal action if no changes are made.

The letter, which was published Thursday, January 7 on Gamasutra, details declining conditions which supposedly began March of 2009. The letter is signed simply, “Determined Devoted Wives of Rockstar San Diego employees.”

The chief accusation made in the letter is against unfair hours expected from employees. “It becomes mandatory to work close to twelve hours a day including Saturdays, regardless if an employee has finished all his duties,” the letter says. In contrast to the increase in expected hours, the letter cites declining and disappearing benefits, including “a vacation week between Christmas and New Year.”

As a result of these conditions, the letter claims employees are suffering from physical manifestations of stress. “Some employees have been diagnosed with depression symptoms and at least one among them is acknowledged to have suicidal tendencies.”

The accusations in the letter are quite bold, but comments beneath Thursday’s blog post, many of which were supposedly penned by ex-Rockstar employees, support the claims. One post said that employees received “performance warnings” if they worked less than 11 hours per day; another post described being denied of promised royalties altogether.

Without giving names, the letter lays blame on management at the San Diego studio, including one “newly promoted studio manager that vulgarly speaks the F work in most sentences.”

The letter ends by threatening legal action if no changes are made within the coming weeks. “Rest assure,” the letter ends, “all that is desired is compensation for … damages done to families of employees.”

Rockstar was unavailable for comment at the time of this publication.