700 Ubisoft workers strike in France over failed salary negotiations
Over 700 unionised Ubisoft employees working across the company's French studios have taken part in an organised day of strike action after annual salary negotiations collapsed.
The strike, organised by French game workers union STJV (Syndicat des Travailleurs et Travailleuses du Jeu Vidéo), took place on 14th February across Ubisoft's Paris, Montpellier, Annecy, Lyon, and Bordeaux studios. The STJV had called for action at the start of this month, saying annual salary negotiations had reached an unsatisfactory conclusion.
«In recent weeks,» the STJV wrote in a statement shared at the time, «Mandatory Annual Negotiations on salaries have taken place in several Ubisoft entities in France, and the STJV was obviously present. Despite concerted efforts by union organisations to find an acceptable compromise, negotiations hit a wall.»
To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settings What did we think of Microsoft's multiplatform Xbox soft launch?Watch on YouTubeThe STJV accused Ubisoft management of offering a «budget for increases below inflation, for the second year in a row», saying the company was hiding behind a «purely arbitrary cost reduction policy». «How do we correlate this contempt with our CEO's exhortations to 'gain agility and efficiency'?,» it wrote. «How could we accept such a low level of increases when the company boasts of a second quarter 'well beyond [our] expectations', while wanting to 'pay tribute to the exceptional commitment of the teams'? This reward system seems very poorly balanced to us.»
«That a company that continues to make profits, despite multi-deficient management, decides to make employees pay to increase its profits,» the union statement continued, «is simply unacceptable.» The STJV finished by calling for strike action «for all French entities belonging to the Ubisoft group» on 14th February.
Read more on eurogamer.net
