Ubisoft Paris Employees To Strike Following CEO Comments

0

Ubisoft employees announce a strike in response to comments made by CEO Yves Guillemot.


Employees of Ubisoft’s Paris division are set to strike on January 27. This comes as a response to statements made by Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot on his plan to combat the company’s poor financial performance in 2022.


As reported by Kotaku, Guillemot intends to cut company expenses by $215 million. In an email to employees, he called for unity and dedication, writing “I am also asking that each of you be especially careful and strategic with your spending and initiatives, to ensure we’re being as efficient and lean as possible.”

DUALSHOCKERS VIDEO OF THE DAY

RELATED: Ubisoft Says Beyond Good & Evil 2 Is Still In Development, Despite Recent Cancelations

In response, the Ubisoft-Paris chapter of the trade union Solidaires Informatique announced its intention to strike. Union members say Guillemot’s language is a dog whistle signaling the deterioration of working conditions at the company, and in response, the union members have released a set of demands.

  • An immediate 10% increase in all salaries
  • Implementation of a 4-day work week
  • Transparency on the evolution of the workplace
  • An end to disguised layoffs

The union accuses Guillemot of passing corporate failures onto the workforce and warns that his request for employees to “give their all” could increase developer burnout and harsher crunch cycles. Employees claim there is plenty of money to go around without resorting to Guillemot’s austerity measures. It cites millions made in stock sold to the company’s largest shareholder, Chinese tech giant Tencent, which accounts for 11% of the company’s stock.

Earlier this week Ubisoft addressed its poor financial showing in 2022. Ubisoft stock has seen a sharp decline due to disappointing sales figures which has resulted in repeated delays and cancelations of projects. Ubisoft has done this to focus on its flagship titles such as Assassin’s Creed and Rainbow Six to ameliorate flagging sales.

These revelations come during a contracting market and overall global economic uncertainty, as well as moves towards increased consolidation, with Microsoft’s ongoing attempted acquisition of Activision-Blizzard casting a looming shadow over these proceedings. These financial worries compound ongoing issues with workplace misconduct, primarily from management and commonly towards women and non-binary individuals.

For now, the strike is short, merely four hours on January 27, and limited only to the Paris branch of Ubisoft. For a company already in dire straits, even this short labor stoppage could more than just sting. It remains to be seen if other branches of the publisher in Canada or the US will man the barricades to take up the fight in solidarity with their French colleagues, or how Ubisoft’s corporate leadership will respond to this warning shot fired across its bow.

NEXT: Skull And Bones Reveals New Narrative Details In 30-Minute Gameplay Showcase

 

Read original article here

Denial of responsibility! Gamers Greade is an automatic aggregator of the all world’s media. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, all materials to their authors. If you are the owner of the content and do not want us to publish your materials, please contact us by email – [email protected]. The content will be deleted within 24 hours.

Leave A Reply

Your email address will not be published.