// PC GAMER — GAMING
Rockstar UK employees say the GTA 6 developer's still plagued by gender pay gaps, crunch, and vague bonuses which make them 'as pliable as possible to their boss's whims'
"A fifth of your salary could be withheld without any justification."
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Rockstar's a big company—and while we're excited for Grand Theft Auto 6, that doesn't sideline the studio's potential for cruddiness. Both from a consumer-facing point of view (like GTA 6 being fully digital) or an employee-facing one, with union-busting allegations in the UK still ongoing.
It looks like, even outside of that dispute, there are still problems. Union members who aren't embroiled in the current legal quagmire spoke to GameDeveloper about their experience with the studio, and it's not looking particularly solid there, either.
The developers, which the report states "chose to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal"—already a bad sign—go into a trio of problems with the company that's making things difficult. Namely bonuses, gender pay gaps, and crunch.
Firstly, that the lack of transparency around those bonuses makes it a useful carrot on the stick for leadership—and a mental nightmare of invisible chess for employees, given they've got no idea whether their bonuses will be good or not, or what even goes into one:
"The reasoning given for this is often nebulous," GameDeveloper is told, "Inconsistent between departments, even inconsistent between team members within the same department, and sometimes hinges on completely subjective or retroactive criticisms.
"They are under no obligation to show their working. Employees want good pay, and if literally anything they do that year could affect it, they will naturally feel they have to be as pliable as possible to their boss's whims."
The report also states that initiatives to address gender pay gaps were scrapped, and that night workers were no longer given extra compensation for their hours. It doesn't help that there's still reportedly an attempt to normalise crunch within the company.
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