Day 3: Rockstar Employment Tribunal

Rockstar Games' employment tribunal continued on Monday with further discussion of allegedly confidential GTA 6 information shared on Discord, as the company argued that unannounced features could be "huge news" for fans and investors.

Former Rockstar employee Dayne Oram continued giving evidence at the employment tribunal in Glasgow on September 14, as Rockstar and its former workers dispute whether confidential information was improperly shared in a Discord used by employees involved in union activities.

Rockstar discusses "unannounced" GTA 6 features

Rockstar barrister Thomas Cordrey questioned Oram about references in the Discord to "unannounced" features in GTA 6.

Cordrey argued that previously unknown information about the game would be:

"Huge news"

for investors and fans, and said it could "directly affect" the share price of Rockstar parent company Take-Two Interactive.

He argued that posting the information in a Discord of around 350 members had:

"Enormously widened the pool who now had access to this information."

Cordrey said Oram, as an administrator, should have deleted the messages because the channel's own rules prohibited sharing "project information".

Oram disputed the significance of the information, saying it had only arisen during a discussion about working conditions and had not been considered project information. They also stressed that the Discord was private and employees within it had signed non-disclosure agreements.

Rockstar calls sharing HR emails an "egregious" breach

The hearing also focused on two emails from Rockstar vice president of HR Rob Spampinato which Oram copied into the Discord in October 2025.

The emails concerned guidelines for the use of Slack channels and had originally been distributed internally to Rockstar staff.

Cordrey argued that posting the full emails in the Discord, which included 10 former Rockstar employees, breached the company's information-handling policies.

"Your breach of this policy was an egregious act of gross misconduct."

Oram disputed this, saying the emails had already been sent to all Rockstar staff and that they were unaware some people in the Discord no longer worked for the company.

They also said it was "difficult to reconcile" Rockstar's information-handling policy with employees' rights to participate in union activities, arguing that sharing the emails had been necessary for those activities.

Emails could be "gold dust" for hackers

Rockstar also argued that sharing internal communications outside its approved systems increased the risk of phishing and social-engineering attacks.

"Rockstar's concerns are not hypothetical. There have been materially damaging attacks based on employees being tricked through phishing attacks."

Cordrey argued that obtaining genuine emails from a senior Rockstar executive could make impersonating that person considerably easier.

"If you were a hacker who wanted to trick Rockstar employees, it would be gold dust to have two emails showing exactly how Mr Spampinato communicates, and would make it much easier to trick employees."

Rockstar pointed to the company's major 2022 security breach, which resulted in early GTA 6 development footage appearing online, as evidence that the threat of social-engineering attacks was real.

Union questions Rockstar's GTA 6 leak claims

Following Monday's proceedings, the Independent Workers' Union of Great Britain issued a response challenging Rockstar's characterisation of the information shared by the dismissed employees.

"Rockstar has accused the workers it fired of leaking highly sensitive information about GTA VI. Yet since the mass dismissal of union members last year, people following the case have been asking: where are these leaks?"

The union also argued that the comments highlighted by Rockstar during Monday's hearing had not actually named GTA 6.

"The comments Rockstar pointed to today did not identify GTA VI, and it was only when Rockstar itself connected them to the game during these legal proceedings that they became in any way public."

Rockstar maintains that the employees were dismissed for gross misconduct involving the sharing of confidential company information and not because of trade union membership or activity.

The former workers and IWGB dispute that explanation, alleging the dismissals were connected to union activities.

The employment tribunal continues in Glasgow before judge Lucy Wiseman.

Sources

• The Independent / PA Media – Sharing Rockstar emails on Discord was 'egregious breach' of policy – tribunal
• The Times – Sacked GTA VI worker accused of 'egregious breach'