The IWGB Recreation Employees union has published its first manifesto, calling for improvements to wages, working hours and job security for UK-based online game creators.
Key projects in the IWGB Games Wizard manifesto include:
- Union Popularity: Make sure everyone is recognized through their employer.
- Hours of operation and overtime: End reliance on overtime, ensure that “no overtime” laws cannot be enforced, voluntary overtime is moderately compensated, introduce a four-day future of work, ensure psychological fitness days as part of the release due to health problems
- Refund: Demand an increase in annual salary, reinforce the base salary for all company employees, equitable stocks of study earnings, end the gender pay gap, equivalent parental release, obtain residual rights and royalties, strengthen pension plans
- Duty and transparency: Ensure that C-suite executives are held accountable for mergers, acquisitions, studio closures and layoffs, require pay transparency, and require “open book” accounting for studio budgets.
- Task security: Stronger contractual protections, ensure clearly established redundancy processes, strengthen redundancy programmes, campaign for AI standards and end the abuse of fixed-term oaths.
- Justice and inclusion: Ensure universal career options are available, strengthen disability, neurodiversity, LGBTQ+ and mental fitness support, ensure policies are adopted to address sexual misconduct, harassment and bullying, support inclusive language guidelines, mandatory training in absolute best DEI practices.
- Training and schooling: Strengthen the study and construction of schemes, require sexual misconduct and antitrust training for executives and senior management control.
- Contractual terms: Eliminate unreasonable non-compete and non-disparagement clauses, collateral credit, collateral possession of private initiatives
“The gaming industry has reached a turning point,” said IWGB President Austin Kelmore. “Every other day in the fight against this relentless avalanche of layoffs, workers are realizing they urgently need to change and are unionizing on a scale never seen before.
“The people who choose to work in the games industry are some of the most passionate, creative and dedicated people you’ll ever meet, and studio bosses rely on that passion to exploit us without fair pay, conditions or job security.”
Kelmore insisted: “Together we can ensure that the future of the gaming industry is very different. Stable work, fair pay, a balanced work schedule: all of this is within our reach if we come together to demand it in unison.”
The union has revealed a significant increase in the number of clubs from December 2022 to December 2023 following continued layoffs and studio closures.
