GamesMarkt

Editor’s Note: We have anonymised both interview partners to protect them from possible repercussions. 

**GamesMarkt: It has been exactly one year since the kick-off of the [ver.di Game Devs Roundtable](https://tk-it-nrw.verdi.de/themen-und-kampagnen/game-devs). What has happened since then?**

**Committee Member: **Unfortunately, what has happened is that at least 20,000 people in the games industry worldwide have lost their jobs since then. That is the negative aspect. At the same time, more and more games workers have actually joined forces. The network we have built has grown. Many have become active in standing up for their rights. Since the kick-off at devcom 2024, ten more works councils have been established in German game dev companies, as far as we know. In this respect, we are on the right track and it shows that there is a turning point. People are saying, “Enough is enough, we won't let ourselves be trampled on anymore.”

**And did many people approach you after the launch?**

**Matthias:** Last August, we didn't have a single works council in our roundtable. Of course, we talked about it and considered how to go about it, and people had already made preparations. Works council elections require a certain democratic process before the election meeting can take place, so we prepared that.
The first election took place in September, and there have now been ten in all of Germany. We have actually elected more works councils overall, but two of the companies no longer exist. This is a great success, and the roundtable has also encouraged several interested parties to set up a works council in their company in the first place.

**Committee Member:** It's mostly word of mouth. We have people who like to talk to others in public and tell them about the Round Table on stages, but a lot of it is about finding people you can trust. Because we know exactly how difficult the situation is. So we talk to people first before we bring them into the Round Table, because it has to be done in a spirit of trust. The information about who is actually talking to each other and who is organizing is very important and potentially dangerous for the employees, so we keep it secret. And despite these precautions, new people are constantly joining. Many of them are in the process of founding a works council, others have never dealt with works councils before, but feel that they are always on the verge of being laid off and want to organize. People are looking for a place to exchange ideas and get advice. Because many don't even know what a works council is or what it does. And that's intentional on the part of companies. “Security by obscurity,” but security for the companies against the organization of the workers. We provide information to counter this. And we can also point out when something clearly violates labor law, refer people to free legal advice, and so on. Because we see an attack by many companies on fundamental rights and think it is important to launch a counterattack that stands up for the employees. Only in this way can we survive and change the status quo.

**Such a statement is also directed against the prevailing conditions in the industry. Have you encountered resistance from employers?**

**Matthias:** Yes, there was real opposition from a few companies. In one company, it took us months from the first election meeting, which had already been in preparation for even longer. That is, gathering people, talking to them, approaching people so that the necessary majorities could be organized to win the first election meeting, all this had already been going on for several months. When it became public that we wanted to hold an election meeting, individual people were singled out and pressured. At the election meeting, falsehoods were spread, for example, that ver.di was not allowed to participate. To put it bluntly, that is simply illegal. Shortly after the election meeting, there were layoffs, and a whole bunch of people were let go. Among them were some from the preparatory committee for the works council election.
This meant, of course, proceeding with caution and care so as not to put more people at risk. In the end, it took almost exactly six months for the election to be held. By law, the deadline for the election process is six to ten weeks. We had to go to court to demand that the employer release the information, because once the election committee is in place, the employer is obliged to provide all the information it needs to determine who is eligible to vote and who is not. We won, and this court ruling was spectacular. It had quite an impact on ver.di, because the court ruled that the election committee should receive all the information it needs, including information about freelancers and anyone else who has anything to do with the company. That helped a lot. And now the relevant team has conducted the election.
So yes, in isolated cases we have seen a lot of resistance from employers. But we haven't noticed any concerted organized counteraction as such from several employers or even from the association. 

**Works Councillor:** The game association itself published a statement immediately after gamescom 2024. As far as we are aware, there has been no further reaction to this. I think it's a case of wait and see, but that's just my speculation. Maybe they will make another announcement this year.

> What is a Works Council?
In Germany, unions work differently than in some other countries. Trade unions are established and everyone can join the union for their trade at any time. In companies, workers can organise into a so-called “Betriebsrat” (Works Council), which supports workers in the case of recruiting negotiations, layoff compensation and overall conflicts with the employer. Companies of a certain size are legally obliged to support the establishment and election of a Works Council if the workers wish to organise. 

**How did the process of establishing a works council work in your company? What steps did you have to go through?**

**Works Councillor:** It went quite smoothly for us. When I started at the company, I heard that there already were plans to set one up. A works council was already in place at a sister company, people knew the process. The establishment process was very slow at first, but at some point, more and more of us noticed that the parent company was making decisions that the workers didn't like at all. So we knew we had to push through with the establishment of the works council. At first, we just talked to people and gathered goodwill, but then we simply set a date. And it worked. It was important that we brought the people who had already signaled their approval long before back into a meeting when things became concrete. We also brought someone from ver.di back in. Thankfully, the process went smoothly after announcing our request for a worker's council.

**So there was a specific cause in your company that prompted you to go ahead with setting up a works council?**

**Works Councillor:** The impetus was the general state of the industry. More and more jobs were being cut everywhere. Ultimately, it wasn't layoffs that prompted us to step up our efforts to form a works council, but rather a different policy that we didn't like. But the fear of layoffs was always there, of course, because we had no protection against them if the company wanted to get rid of us.

**Committee Member:** We don't have a works council yet, but we've been working on it for a long time. So I can tell you about many obstacles. The first one was that shortly after we contacted a lot of peopledue to a huge wave of layoffs. This affected almost half of the company and, unfortunately, many of those who were already convinced. Afterwards, I had hoped that this experience would spark something in people, but in fact, the opposite was true. Many were shocked, afraid of further layoffs, and didn't want to deal with it anymore, or were already looking for jobs elsewhere anyway.

When the mood improved after a while and I started talking to people again, I noticed that many people believed that their relatively good status in the company would be jeopardized by a works council. This was especially prevalent with people who had been with the company for a long time. They had a lot of trust in the management, despite the huge wave of layoffs shortly before. They were very indifferent towards us. In this context, we also noticed that there were people who actively spoke out against unions and works councils because they believed that this would make the situation worse for employees. I don't know where this attitude comes from. You quickly realize that you shouldn't talk about your plans in detail with these people because you have to be afraid of being ratted out and then facing sudden dismissal.

An additional problem with the organization is that we have many remote employees from abroad who are hired through an external company. They are the ones who usually think the works council is a very good idea and would like to have one, but they don't have voting rights and are not allowed to be on the works council itself. That's why nothing has happened yet. The important thing is that people have to be willing to do it. You also need people who want to be on the works council itself and do this work. In addition, the industry is very international and many employees only speak English, but as a works council member, you are often confronted with German law and German politics, which are not easy to understand. Expats from other countries in particular have had many bad experiences with the foreign office and don't dare to wade through even more German bureaucracy. And when your visa is tied to your employment contract, you naturally fear getting into a dispute with your employer, who has you in their power.

![ONE YEAR AGO At devcom 2024, the organisers at ver.di (pictured)...

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