All of Keywords Studios’ unionized QA workers have been laid off from the studio in late September after Dragon Age: Dreadwolf developer BioWare declined to proceed its contract in August.
The QA workers, who have been contracted to help with playtesting and high quality assurance at BioWare Edmonton, gained their union vote in June 2022. All 16 eligible voters mentioned “yes” to becoming a member of United Food and Commercial Workers Canada Union, Local No. 401. It was a historic vote, making the group the primary video games business union in Canada. Keywords Studios workers have been in bargaining with the corporate after they have been laid off following the information of fifty job cuts at BioWare itself.
A UFCW consultant instructed Polygon that 13 individuals have been laid off — everybody supporting BioWare. Liz Corless, Keywords Studios’ world head of promoting, confirmed that 13 Edmonton-based QA workers have been laid off.
“We can confirm that regrettably the 13 Edmonton-based staff have now left the business following the end of a fixed term client contract,” Corless wrote in an electronic mail.
The group of workers have been laid off on Sept. 27. Russwurm added that Keywords Studios has “taken the position there is no more work available.” (Keywords Studios has a number of QA job postings listed on its web site, in Canada and the world over. Many, however not all of those listings, are associated to language localization and require specialties that the laid-off workers might not have.)
Russwurm mentioned the union filed an employment requirements criticism in opposition to Keywords Studios this week. He added that Keywords Studios provided “minimal severance,” which the union is disputing. Severance has not but been paid out, he mentioned. (Several BioWare staff laid off at the moment are at present suing the corporate for “adequate severance.” These are two separate points with two separate corporations, nonetheless, regardless of being linked to Dragon Age: Dreadwolf.)
Though the unionized QA workers didn’t but have a contract with Keywords Studios, they will try to barter higher severance pay.
Keywords Studios is headquartered in Ireland however has greater than 20 worldwide places of work. The studio was based in 1998, and doesn’t publish or develop its personal video games — as a substitute, it offers artwork, QA, audio, and different improvement assist for different studios, like BioWare.
Correction: This story has been up to date to accurately attribute a quote.
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