Laid Off Dev Accuses Codemasters Of "Unlawful" Conditions

[vansau]

Laid Off Dev Accuses Codemasters Of "Unlawful" Conditions

A programmer from Codemasters' recently-closed development studio is accusing the company of some pretty shady dealings, including unpaid overtime and legal bullying.

Codemasters' summer shooter, <a href=http://www.amazon.com/Bodycount-Xbox-360/dp/B0056WJA76/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1326511498&sr=8-1>Bodycount, didn't really have much going for it other than some snazzy cover art. Reviews <a href=http://www.metacritic.com/game/xbox-360/bodycount>tended to be middling - at best - and sales were so lackluster that the publisher wound up shutting down its Guildford studio and laying off roughly 70 employees. Now, a former employee at the studio has claimed Codemasters of some pretty serious charges, including unpaid overtime and threatening those let go with bankruptcy proceedings if they didn't return money they were "mistakenly" paid.

Semi Essessi was a programmer who worked on Bodycount and has now become a whistle-blower thanks to a blog post what about what was supposedly going on while he was at Codemasters. While employed by the company, Essessi claims he was never paid for working over 400 hours of overtime. Additionally, he claims he wasn't the only person who picked up crazy amounts overtime.

He also claims that Codemasters tasked him with work that "exceeded my job description significantly." Meanwhile, he says he was repeatedly turned down for a pay raise and/or a promotion when he spoke to management.

Now, when the studio's closure was announced, he contacted the human resources department over the unpaid overtime. The email response he received said that he wasn't owed any:

We have undertaken a thorough review of your grievance regarding the non payment for the extra hours that you claimed you have worked. We appreciate it that there was a focus across the whole studio to work extra hours, to get the game completed to the final deadline, however it was made clear and communicated upfront to everyone, that those who did work, no TOIL or overtime pay would be made for those extra hours. Therefore, you knowingly, worked the hours in the knowledge that you would not be compensated for them, in TOIL or payment. Furthermore, from our investigations you never challenged this or raised any queries at the time of working the extra hours.

Subsequent emails from Essessi to the HR department noted that Codemasters was breaking the law because the company wasn't allowing workers to get eleven hours of rest a day nor the obligatory twenty four hour break every week. He also claimed he'd never received a monthly pay slip "on or before" paydays (which is apparently another legal breach).

When the studio actually closed down, Essessi claims that he and several other colleagues received a "substantial" amount of money with their final paychecks. Accordingly, "after lots of pub discussion the overriding opinion was that they had seen sense and had decided to pay us all a bit extra to keep us quiet about just how illegally the studio had been running."

A month later, though, Essessi received both a phone call and an email that he'd been "mistakenly" paid an extra month's worth of salary. As a result, he was now required to repay the company within five days on December 20th. Essessi had already spent the money, paying off some of the debt he'd accrued between moving to Guildford, transitioning between jobs, and finding a new place to live.

Essessi wasn't able to raise the cash, and Codemasters gave him a new deadline: January 3rd. Again, he wasn't able to meet it, so now he has until January 20th to repay the company or he'll be facing bankruptcy proceedings.

The allegations in Essessi's blog are partially backed up by screenshots of emails, but so far there isn't any hard evidence supporting his claims.

Codemasters, meanwhile, has contacted Eurogamer, claiming that it's still in an open dialogue with Essessi, has yet to begin legal proceedings against the developer, but has ominously noted "the company's advisers are now aware of the additional comments that Semi has published and these will be addressed with him directly through the appropriate channels as necessary."

Source: <a href=http://jheriko-rtw.blogspot.com/2012/01/codemasters-are-on-scrounge.html>Semi Essessi via <a href=http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-01-13-laid-off-programmer-details-unlawful-last-days-at-bodycount-studio>Eurogamer


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[Mordwyl]

Can anyone give me a nice big round of "fuck these guys"?

I would have loved to have taken the gamble and attempt to become a video game developer. But, I chose a safer, as well as more reliable path. Why? Because people who work on games have to put up with this shit non-stop. I believe I heard somewhere that the average time worked in the game industry is 5 years per person. Ouch.

Really, employment within the game industry is anything but job security. Those that generally stick with a company long term are either veteran staff or people required for the longest stretch of duration on a project. Hence why after some time the majority are freelance with companies hiring employees in bulk, shifting and removing as the needs of a project change.

Also, this is to be expected from a major publisher. How they handle their human resources is irrelevant since there are thousands of potential employees just dying to take your place. For all they care they can sack their best programmers just because.

 

[Xanthious]

Just another shining example that video games, like sausages, are best enjoyed when you are unaware of what goes into making them. Personally you couldn't get me to work in that cesspool of an industry at gunpoint.

 

[Morty815]

I can completely confirm what this man says, my brother, recently worked at Codemasters (Guildford branch), he left in 2010 but has kept in touch with many of the programmers he met there, last he spoke to me about it, he said they were running the place like a nazi camp.

 

[Epona]

So is it legal to not pay overtime even if an employee agrees to work "off the clock"?

 

[Berenzen]

While shit like this happens, and some of this story is horrid, if you're working in the game industry, you should know that during crunch time, you are working for extremely long periods of time, typically without pay. Developing games isn't a 9-5 job. Hell, many jobs aren't- I know University professors that continuously work for 14-18 hours every weekday. If it was massively continuous periods of time, then its starts to change, but I haven't really seen evidence that attests to that. 400 hours overtime? If you work a 16 hour day, that's still only 50 days of overtime, and it was probably even less than that. That EXPECTED when you work at a game development company.

There are really only a couple things that I can see that Codemasters did wrong- they didn't give a 24 hour rest period every 7 days- which would actually be detrimental to the development- and the fact that they're asking for the money back. I can see their side of the argument here though. If they were really on a strict deadline, that 7 day work week could be a solution. As for them asking for the money back- typically if you get an abnormal paycheck, it's probably a mistake. A bonus- at least in my experience- is presented as a separate check.

So yeah, little sympathy for the guy

 

[FalloutJack]

Just another shining example that video games, like sausages, are best enjoyed when you are unaware of what goes into making them. Personally you couldn't get me to work in that cesspool of an industry at gunpoint.

Actually, I would still eat sausage just the same. And poor conditions don't put me off gaming. It makes me hate people. It's not the game's fault, really. He just wants to play.

 

[ThunderCavalier]

I wish I could truly sympathize with this guy's plgiht, but from what I'm getting from the article, there's no real substantial evidence that Codemasters has been screwing over its employees. For all we know, he's right and a game industry is simply screwing over its employees in a desperate attempt to make cash-in games to keep itself afloat.

Or, for what we know, it's just a burned dev that's making up a sob story so he'll get some money out of the event.

 

[Baldr]

So is it legal to not pay overtime even if an employee agrees to work "off the clock"?

In the US it is not legal. Except for a few exempt jobs vary from state to state(Game Devs jobs are not one of them) you have to pay overtime for work over 40 hours a week, including salary and contract employees(unless exempt).

In the UK and other places I don't know what the laws are.
but I did find this:
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/Employees/WorkingHoursAndTimeOff/DG_10028439

 

[TheDooD]

I wish I could truly sympathize with this guy's plgiht, but from what I'm getting from the article, there's no real substantial evidence that Codemasters has been screwing over its employees. For all we know, he's right and a game industry is simply screwing over its employees in a desperate attempt to make cash-in games to keep itself afloat.

Or, for what we know, it's just a burned dev that's making up a sob story so he'll get some money out of the event.

For all we know it could be a combo of both things. holy shit job security for gaming is SO shitty it's sad like all these guys work hard just be pawns.

 

[Epona]

I wish I could truly sympathize with this guy's plgiht, but from what I'm getting from the article, there's no real substantial evidence that Codemasters has been screwing over its employees. For all we know, he's right and a game industry is simply screwing over its employees in a desperate attempt to make cash-in games to keep itself afloat.

Or, for what we know, it's just a burned dev that's making up a sob story so he'll get some money out of the event.

So the letter from the HR Dept isn't evidence that he did work hours he wasn't paid for?

We have undertaken a thorough review of your grievance regarding the non payment for the extra hours that you claimed you have worked. We appreciate it that there was a focus across the whole studio to work extra hours, to get the game completed to the final deadline, however it was made clear and communicated upfront to everyone, that those who did work, no TOIL or overtime pay would be made for those extra hours. Therefore, you knowingly, worked the hours in the knowledge that you would not be compensated for them, in TOIL or payment. Furthermore, from our investigations you never challenged this or raised any queries at the time of working the extra hours.

Be realistic, if he had refused to work overtime, wouldn't he have been canned sooner? Optional unpaid overtime is really not optional at all.

 

[Berenzen]

Be realistic, if he had refused to work overtime, wouldn't he have been canned sooner? Optional unpaid overtime is really not optional at all.

Here are the companies choices-
Allow them to not do overtime-> risk not finishing the game on time, guaranteed failure. Increases cost because of increased time. With money they may not have. Decreases chances that the game will sell as well do to lost interest

Paid the workers overtime-> Substainally increases cost with money they may or may not have, needs to sell more copies. Risks being a commercial failure

Don't pay the workers overtime through "optional" unpaid overtime-> Don't increase cost of development. Game gets out on time. Less risk of being a commercial failure.

The guy was in the game industry, he should have known that crunch time happens. It's part of how game development is. If the game is ahead of schedule, you won't have as much crunch time to do. But it will still happen, even if it's just to squeeze out some bugs, or to add content that they didn't have time to implement during the main dev period, but would help sell more in the game.

 

[Epona]

Be realistic, if he had refused to work overtime, wouldn't he have been canned sooner? Optional unpaid overtime is really not optional at all.

Here are the companies choices-
Allow them to not do overtime-> risk not finishing the game on time, guaranteed failure. Increases cost because of increased time. With money they may not have. Decreases chances that the game will sell as well do to lost interest

Paid the workers overtime-> Substainally increases cost with money they may or may not have, needs to sell more copies. Risks being a commercial failure

Don't pay the workers overtime through "optional" unpaid overtime-> Don't increase cost of development. Game gets out on time. Less risk of being a commercial failure.

The guy was in the game industry, he should have known that crunch time happens. It's part of how game development is. If the game is ahead of schedule, you won't have as much crunch time to do. But it will still happen, even if it's just to squeeze out some bugs, or to add content that they didn't have time to implement during the main dev period, but would help sell more in the game.

WOW! I am so glad someone is thinking about the poor companies. Those damn employees expecting to get paid!

 

[Twilight_guy]

If the Dev studio closed the conditions were this bad, shouldn't other people be complaining as well. Other people worked there and this seems pretty bad by most company standards (in the US, kids in china would kill for that job). There's always the chance the guy is lieing and angry for being fired but getting some other fellow jobless folks to support him, even anonymously, would be a big benefit.

 

[Vakz]

While shit like this happens, and some of this story is horrid, if you're working in the game industry, you should know that during crunch time, you are working for extremely long periods of time, typically without pay. Developing games isn't a 9-5 job. Hell, many jobs aren't- I know University professors that continuously work for 14-18 hours every weekday. If it was massively continuous periods of time, then its starts to change, but I haven't really seen evidence that attests to that. 400 hours overtime? If you work a 16 hour day, that's still only 50 days of overtime, and it was probably even less than that. That EXPECTED when you work at a game development company.

There are really only a couple things that I can see that Codemasters did wrong- they didn't give a 24 hour rest period every 7 days- which would actually be detrimental to the development- and the fact that they're asking for the money back. I can see their side of the argument here though. If they were really on a strict deadline, that 7 day work week could be a solution. As for them asking for the money back- typically if you get an abnormal paycheck, it's probably a mistake. A bonus- at least in my experience- is presented as a separate check.

So yeah, little sympathy for the guy

I'm sorry, but this just sounds so incredibly dumb. You do realize what you're saying is that it's fine if Codemasters treat their employees like shit, because every else does it too? Illegal is still illegal, even if some morons thought it was okay to push their employees far over the limit. The change has to start somewhere..

 

[Berenzen]

WOW! I am so glad someone is thinking about the poor companies. Those damn employees expecting to get paid!

They got paid- their salary. What was agreed upon. If they paid every employee (70 or so) over time wage, it would cost around 1.4 million- just for the overtime. That's probably 14% of what the development team was given to create the game. That means they would end up cutting people to recoup costs. Meaning the game has a higher chances at being a failure due to lower staff amounts, meaning the whole company gets liquidated.

And it's no where near over the limit. I don't think that 50 days of crunch time is abnormal at all. Team Bondi's situation was abnormal. If the game had done well, they probably would have gotten bonus' that repaid them for the overtime. But it didn't meaning the game was a failure, and the studio had no money left. So it had to liquidate its assets back to Codemasters.

It sucks that he's in debt, but if they were mistakenly paid- and it is fairly easy to check it out if they were- and he spent it all, then he's fucked, he shouldn't have cashed the check if he knew that it was abnormal- and he did. They made assumptions that the company was trying to pay them off to be quiet. He should have checked with the company first before paying it all off.

In the end just paying them the overtime isn't the way to go. Most of these companies are on fairly strict contracts, and publishers don't typically have the money to just throw at them, it's normally invested in other games. This applies even to the much larger publisher companies as well, they don't just have the money stored away somewhere, they fund various companies to create games, meaning they don't have that money, or if they do, it typically a very small amount.

It sucks that tbey don't get paid, sure, but unless people are willing to take a 5-10 dollar hike on the MRSP, then developers aren't going to get paid overtime.

 

[Belated]

WOW! I am so glad someone is thinking about the poor companies. Those damn employees expecting to get paid!

They got paid- their salary. What was agreed upon. If they paid every employee (70 or so) over time wage, it would cost around 1.4 million- just for the overtime. That's probably 14% of what the development team was given to create the game. That means they would end up cutting people to recoup costs. Meaning the game has a higher chances at being a failure due to lower staff amounts, meaning the whole company gets liquidated.

And it's no where near over the limit. I don't think that 50 days of crunch time is abnormal at all. Team Bondi's situation was abnormal. If the game had done well, they probably would have gotten bonus' that repaid them for the overtime. But it didn't meaning the game was a failure, and the studio had no money left. So it had to liquidate its assets back to Codemasters.

It sucks that he's in debt, but if they were mistakenly paid- and it is fairly easy to check it out if they were- and he spent it all, then he's fucked, he shouldn't have cashed the check if he knew that it was abnormal- and he did. They made assumptions that the company was trying to pay them off to be quiet. He should have checked with the company first before paying it all off.

Someone as unsympathetic as you isn't worthy of Fluttershy.

I don't know enough about the games industry to weigh in on the overtime debate, but the check? Really? The check is his fault? How? He shouldn't have cashed it? The company shouldn't have sent it! What right do they have to put him into debt over their mistake!? They should just eat the cost!

By the way, your other post? Yeah, no. I don't care what industry he's in. Wage laws exist for a reason. You can't force an employee to work unpaid overtime with the threat of losing his job if he doesn't. You can't justify that by saying "It's the game industry." If this is a common occurrence and every game company acts like this, all that means is that every company is doing something wrong and every company needs to be put under investigation. It doesn't magically become acceptable just because lots of companies are doing it.

Oh, wait, I guess I just did weigh in on the overtime debate.

 

[Secret world leader (shhh)]

Why does it only seem to be the games industry that pulls shit like this on such a regular basis? You don't hear this kind of thing from hollywood, and music industry complaints are only ever artistic ones.