Rob Spampinato, Rockstar's vice president for HR, was cross-examined at the Glasgow employment tribunal on October 14 and 15. The central claim the claimants' lawyers pressed was that the October 2025 dismissal of 34 workers was triggered by the IWGB approaching the statutory recognition threshold. Spampinato rejected that framing across multiple questions. Asked whether posts AB passed on in October 2025, suggesting the union had crossed the threshold, led to the decision to dismiss, he said: 'That's absolutely not true.' Asked whether he had told HR director Charlie Kinloch to keep tabs on union membership, he said it was 'categorically not true.' On the suggestion that the firings were revenge against the union: 'That's preposterous.'
Cross-examination also focused on why the dismissals came in October 2025 when some Discord activity had reached the company as early as March 2024. Spampinato said the company had been in 'crisis mode' in October 2025. On employee AB, who passed information about the Discord server to management, he said: 'There was no compiling of information, he passed along one update that included this.' He also said that as the information came through, 'we started getting a clearer picture of just how unhinged that Discord server was.' When claimants' counsel suggested two workers had been sacrificed for plausible deniability, he called it 'a ridiculous question.' Jennifer Kolbe, Rockstar's head of licensing, also gave evidence, PA reported. She told the tribunal she was the ultimate decision-maker on the dismissals, described the discovery of the Discord server as an unprecedented situation, and when asked whether Rockstar had deployed informants in the server, rejected the characterisation, saying those who reported activity were whistleblowers.
The dismissed workers' lawyers argue the firings were timed to prevent the IWGB union from reaching the statutory recognition threshold. Rockstar's position, stated by a spokesperson, is that the dismissals were for gross misconduct over sharing confidential information. The hearing was scheduled to finish October 16. No ruling has been issued. GTA 6 launches November 19 on PS5 and Xbox Series X and S.