It was nice almost a month since a former employee filed a National Labor Relations Board complaint against Nintendo for surveillance, coercion and retaliation. Aside from an initial statement the company denied being involved in any anti-union activity, the House of Mario has remained publicly silent in the face of mounting allegations of poor working conditions, although she has acknowledged them internally. Instead, it has spent the past few weeks promoting it turn 3, Mario Strikerand his other major summer releases without missing a beat.
That Latest report on workers frustration at Nintendo of America axioswho first broke the news of the original NLRB complaint. Released Thursday, it details complaints from current and former employees about how Nintendo relies on contractors at all key levels of its North American operations, while offering poor terms and no job stability in return. “I was told if I would go [my grandpa’s] At a funeral, I wouldn’t have a job if I came back,” said a former employee axios.
This report follows one April 22 investigation by my box in which 10 current and former Nintendo employees described a two-tier system at the company where full-time temp testers, localizers, call center reps, and others are poorly paid, treated with little respect, and rarely hired full-time, despite being experts in their fields become department. On the 3rd of May IGN follows with its own synopsis, which describes similar problems and the growing dissatisfaction among current employees about the exploitative system. Even former Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aimé weighed down the allegations and said they were were not representative of the Nintendo he remembered while I work there.
Meanwhile, Nintendo hasn’t said anything about it, at least externally. Internally, axios revealed that current Nintendo of America President Doug Bowser addressed the allegations in a message to employees about “stories appearing in some media outlets today about alleged working conditions at Nintendo.”
“Like many of you, the leadership team and I find many of these points troubling and we are closely reviewing the content,” Bowser wrote axios. The Nintendo exec added that the company has “zero tolerance for inappropriate behavior, including harassment, discrimination or intimidation.” Corresponding my box‘s own sources, which confirmed the contents of the news, Bowser released it on April 22, the same day as our initial report.
They say this was the company’s only meaningful communication on the matter, and attribute the prolonged radio silence to a sense that Nintendo is just waiting for the whole thing to be over. They also found his vagueness disappointing. “It all feels very hopeless,” said a current employee.
Meanwhile, Nintendo has continued to promote its big upcoming games. The company announced on the same day as Bowser’s internal message turn 3release date. switch sports released a week later. Yesterday, the company held its latest indie showcase. And today Mario Strikers: Battle League get a new follower.
One thing Nintendo can’t market is the NLRB complaint. While Nintendo said the employee in question was fired for allegedly violating a nondisclosure agreement, four sources familiar with the incident said my box the person had spoken out about unions a few weeks before the sacking. And now axios reports that Parker, one of the recruitment agencies that provides Nintendo with cheap labor, had previously told employees in 2014 to stop discussing organizing workers outside of work.
While talk of open unionization is rare, grumbling about the ongoing conditions is not, although many employees say they fear retaliation if they are ever caught making a grievance. A current employee recently told it my box“Everyone is afraid to speak to management about unions, although we all express our concerns and dissatisfaction with how we are dealing with each other.”
