What you need to know
- An unnamed worker is filing a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board against Nintendo of America and hiring firm Aston Carter.
- The two companies are accused of working together to prevent the worker from unionizing.
- Unionization remains a hot topic across the gaming industry, with employees at Activision Blizzard-owned Raven Software currently pending recognition.
Worker rights continue to be a hot topic in the gaming industry, and now publisher Nintendo finds itself a part of the discussions.
As shared by Axios, an unnamed worker is filing a complaint against Nintendo of America, alleging that the company worked with hiring firm Aston Carter in "concerted activities" to make "coercive actions" against a worker, preventing the worker in question from unionizing.
The exact complaints aren't currently clear, but may have involved surveillance, threats, and more. This complaint was filed with the National Labor Relations Board in Washington State. We'll have to wait and see how things unfold pending the future investigation.
As noted by Axios, Nintendo has previously been absent from most of the discussions around worker rights and unionization, but this could change depending on how the investigation goes.
This also comes as unionization continues to be discussed across the gaming industry, with Raven Software QA (quality assurance) developers working to unionize. 34 employees formed the Game Worker's Alliance, which is currently pending recognition from Raven Software's parent company Activision Blizzard.
Activision Blizzard is currently in the process of being acquired by Microsoft, in a deal worth almost $69 billion. The deal is slated to close sometime before June 2023. When the deal is finalized, it will add nearly 10,000 workers across Activision Blizzard to the Xbox first-party division.
