Rockstar Games HR boss tells tribunal it is 'categorically not true' that he spied on GTA workers' union membership

Robert Spampinato, Rockstar Games' vice president of HR, told a Glasgow employment tribunal on Wednesday that he had never directed employees to monitor union membership — yet was confronted with evidence that an anonymous insider had been covertly feeding details of union meetings and recruitment activity to senior HR managers since early 2024. Spampinato accepted that the information gave management visibility of workplace grievances, while flatly denying any intent to undermine union activity. The dismissal of 34 workers — most of them from Rockstar North in Edinburgh — last October is at the heart of the case.

Twenty-three of the dismissed workers, represented by the IWGB, claim they were sacked for trade union activity, not for the Discord confidentiality breach Rockstar alleges.

Claimants' lawyers are set to argue that the workers were unlawfully blacklisted and targeted — and evidence suggests HR executive Charlie Kinloch actively 'solicited' union intelligence from the anonymous source.

Spampinato told the tribunal Rockstar was in 'crisis mode' over delays to GTA 6 when the October 2026 sackings happened — a game now scheduled for release on 19 November.