Ex-BioWare employees and contractors use N7 Day to air disputes with the studio

pcgamer.com:

N7 Day was a bit of a letdown this year, as a multi-stage tease for the next Mass Effect game ended up delivering basically nothing except another reminder that yes, it is happening. But bigger things were happening elsewhere, as former employees of BioWare and contract workers on Dragon Age: Dreadwolf took advantage of the annual Mass Effect remembrance to highlight their ongoing dispute with the company.

In September, Keywords Studios laid off 13 QA employees who had been playtesting the upcoming Dragon Age: Dreadwolf RPG. The layoffs came after BioWare ended its contract with Keywords, an external testing studio: In a statement sent to Polygon following the cuts, Keywords said that «13 Edmonton-based staff have now left the business following the end of a fixed term client contract.»

The timing seemed odd, given that Dreadwolf is presumably still in the midst of development and testing is still necessary as a part of that process. The laid-off employees soon alleged that the real issue wasn't a lack of work, as Keywords had told them, but that Keywords and BioWare took issue with their unionization efforts.

Even though the dismissed workers weren't technically BioWare employees, they announced plans to picket the studio on November 7 to bring attention to their plight. A Game Developer report says they're demanding that they be reinstated at Keywords so they can continue to work under new contracts with other Canadian studios.

EA and BioWare had formally opposed the planned picket with the Alberta Labour Relations Board, saying the employees' dispute is with Keywords Studios, and that because they had worked remotely rather than in BioWare's offices they weren't legally entitled to picket there. «We hope that Keywords