Charlie Kinloch, HR director and co-studio operations director at Rockstar Lincoln, was cross-examined at the Glasgow employment tribunal on October 9. Kotaku covered the hearing that day and GTABoom published its own report on October 12. Kinloch told the tribunal he held a 'broad' interest in unionization only as it related to line managers, and 'little interest' in union conversations between individual employees. The case turns on whether Rockstar dismissed 34 workers in October 2025 for leaking confidential information, as Rockstar contends, or because the workers were IWGB union members approaching the 10 percent membership threshold for statutory recognition under UK law, as the union alleges.
A large part of the October 9 cross-examination focused on timing. Rockstar dismissed the workers on October 30, 2025. The IWGB says the union was roughly 12 members short of the 10 percent recognition threshold when the firings came. GTA BOOM reports the claimants' lawyer asked whether waiting 18 months after disparaging comments first reached Kinloch in early 2024 counted as acting 'as quickly as possible.' Kotaku reports he was also asked why comments he knew about in March and June 2025 were not investigated until October. His answer, per Kotaku: 'this was the point where the business was on the cusp, I later learned, of making a significant announcement.' He said 'perhaps half or more' of the people joining the Discord that October could not be identified, and that a leak would be 'commercially valuable to the person who takes the information, reports on it.' Three of the 34 dismissed were non-union workers in Canada, which Rockstar points to as evidence the firings were not about union membership.
The claimants allege Rockstar paid anonymous employee 'AB,' identified in the hearing by that alias, with time off in lieu for passing screenshots of union activity from the Discord to management for over two years. Rockstar describes AB as a voluntary source. The cross-examination also covered whether Kinloch misled the court at a January interim relief hearing through the word 'definitively,' added to one of his later statements. Kinloch disputes that he did. The hearing is expected to finish October 16, with more Rockstar management witnesses still to testify. No ruling has been issued. GTA 6 launches November 19 on PS5 and Xbox Series X and S.