Ubisoft: employees’ health should prevail over the myth of the genius creator

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Press release from the STJV union section at Ubisoft Montpellier, with the support of the STJV union sections at Ubisoft Paris, Ubisoft Bordeaux, Ubisoft Annecy and Ubisoft Ivory Tower

Information has leaked externally about a former employee of Ubisoft, who left the company as the existence of an internal investigation about him was revealed in the press. He is currently involved in a project in an « exploratory phase », as an external consultant. This situation raises serious questions about the safety of workers, especially in terms of psycho-social risks. These concerns have been regularly raised internally for several months without any satisfactory response, in our opinion, from management.

We, members of the STJV union section at Ubisoft, offer our full support to all employees facing a situation that could expose them to psychosocial risks and invite them to contact us at the following addresses if they so wish:

Please note that we will guarantee anonymity to any employee who requests it.

Your involvement is essential if we are to put in place the necessary measures to protect your health and safety.

However, the main issue here is not the return of any one person, but the trust that we can all place in Ubisoft’s internal reporting procedures, particularly in the cases where these do not involve any employee representatives. What guarantees do we have that, in the future, other people who have been denounced as dangerous in the past will not work with Ubisoft again, using similar methods?

We find it very urgent to revise these procedures, and have Ubisoft take firm commitments to prevent cases of harassment, and stand by those.

It’s vital to get away from the belief that single individuals are indispensable to a project’s success.

More than ever: games are made through the collaborative efforts of workers, they are not the product of one or two « talents ».

Call for strike for all French Ubisoft entities on October 15, 16 and 17, 2024

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Management just announced its decision to impose a return to offices for 3 days per week for all employees. This announcement was made without any tangible justification or any consultation with the workers’ representatives.

After more than five years of working efficiently in the current remote-work context, many of our colleagues have built or rebuilt their lives (family life, housing, parenthood, etc.) and simply cannot return to the previous working conditions. Our employer knows this perfectly well. The consequence of its decision will be the loss of our colleagues’ jobs, the disorganization of many game projects, and the drastic increase in psychosocial risks for those who remain.

This decision is announced immediately after the failure of the profit-sharing negotiations. Exactly like previous salary negociations: management’s proposals were innaceptable, the negociations’ timetable was appalling, and management was deaf to the proposals of the various Employee representatives.

To express our anger, we call all Ubisoft employees in France to a first strike on October 15, 16 and 17. Gathering points will be announced in each studio for the 15th.

Our demands are:

  • A formal agreement on remote work: with a due process of real negotiation between management and unions. Not an arbitrary decision taken several months in advance. One which guarantees that each person can freely choose its number of remote days and when they are in the week, as well as beeing counted by the month and not by the week.
  • An immediate increase in all salaries to compensate for the drop in our living standards in recent years. The restoration of the profit-sharing at a 60% objective. The end of the gender pay gap and a higher increase in low salaries.
  • Actually listening to employees opinions by the implementation of a “social dialogue” worthy of the name. Management seems indeed to confuse monologue with dialogue.

We remind you, that in France, you benefit from a constitutional right to strike, more details here: The right to strike in private companies – STJV

Until proven otherwise, games only exist thanks to the workers’ labour, and good games thanks to good working conditions.

We invite our colleagues of all countries to mobilize as well

On February 14th, Ubisoft France on strike for decent wages

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Over the last few weeks the STJV took part in the Mandatory Annual Negotiations on salaries in several Ubisoft entities in France. Despite the unions’ efforts to find an acceptable compromise, negotiations hit a wall. In order to hit arbtirary cost reductions targets, management offered a budget dedicated to raises that would be lower than inflation for the second year in a row.

A badly balanced rewards system

How can we square such disdain with our CEO urging us to « gain in agility and efficiency »? How could we accept such low raises when the company boasts of “an excellent second quarter, well above [our] expectations”, all while paying « tribute to the exceptional level of commitment from the teams »? We’d say that’s a pretty badly balanced rewards system.

Lowering our living standards: not a bug, but a feature

The conclusion is thus: to Ubisoft’s management, our living standards going down isn’t a bug, it’s a feature. A company that still makes a profit, even when its execs have failed repeatedly, choosing to have its employees pay to increase its profits is plainly unacceptable. This is why we call, in association with the other combative unions at Ubisoft, to a strike all day long on wednesday, February 14th, in all the French entities belonging to the Ubisoft group.

If you have any questions on how to join the strike, you may refer to our guide on the topic [in French only for now, sorry!], or contact one of our sections in the various Ubisoft entities.