Tribunal rules former Jagex employee was unfairly dismissed

gamesindustry.biz:

Marie Dealessandri

Features Editor

Friday 8th April 2022

Jagex Games Studio

The Jagex employee who was fired in 2018 for allegedly hijacking multiple player accounts will be awarded compensation for unfair dismissal.

The judgement was made available earlier this month, as spotted by a Reddit user. The Cambridge Employment Tribunal ruled that "the claimant was unfairly dismissed by the respondent within section 98 of the Employment Rights Act 1998."

The former Jagex employee was dismissed in September 2018 for allegedly misusing their privileges as Old School RuneScape moderator to steal in-game currency and items from players.

The court ruled that Jagex's investigation leading to the dismissal of the employee had not been properly conducted, with the judgement reading that there are "factors in support of the contention that the decision was predetermined."

It continued: "The claimant submitted that before the investigation process he had already been named as the likely suspect and that the decision to investigate him was based on him being identified in this way. [The claimant] concluded by submitting that the approach taken was guilty until proven innocent."

The judge added that "had a proper investigation taken place, clear allegations set out and responses fairly considered, it is not inevitable that [the claimant] would have been dismissed."

The next step is for the tribunal to hear evidence and submissions to determine the exact compensation.

GamesIndustry.biz reached out to Jagex for comment.