Don’t Nod workers will go on strike this Friday (November 8, 2024), following the studio’s layoff plan announcement last month.
The picket will be held next to the studio’s headquarters in Paris, the STJV union announced, and the meeting will begin at 2:00 p.m.
Negotiations continue following the announcement that 69 workers could be made redundant as a result of a reorganization plan. Employees have a number of demands, including:
- That Don’t Nod abandons the layoff plan
- That employees have a voice in decision-making in the company
- That the general director of Don’t Nod, Oskar Guilbert, be present at the negotiations
Don’t Nod workers also published an open letter about the studio’s problems, saying that management justified the layoff plan in the economic context without taking into account its own shortcomings and/or taking responsibility.
“As workers at this company, we know that these failures are due to a succession of negligent acts and poor decisions by management,” said the letter, translated by GameIndustry.biz. “We have been warning leaders about these failures for years, but they do not listen to us. In the end, today we are the ones who pay the price for these absurd decisions: the layoff plan.”
The letter described a strategy based on alleged “delusions of grandeur” that led to overinvestment as well as “short-term thinking” in the company over the past few years. The document also highlights that many employees have left the company as a result of this situation, describing understaffed teams and difficult working conditions.
“We want to save the company, but not at the price of unjustified dismissals or a deterioration in the work environment,” the letter concludes.
Don’t Nod announced its layoff plan on October 16 and the STJV then called for collective action in response to the situation. He then called for a strike last week, saying that “the layoff plan is absurd, violent and will not save [the] company.”
