Ubisoft hasn’t had its best years. A string of flops and disappointments means the company isn’t in the best shape heading into 2023, In an attempt to get everyone to lay off last week, CEO Yves Guillemot emailed employees to tell them: “The ball is yours”. It didn’t go down well.
In fact, it was as bad as one of those emails can get, doing everything from blaming workers for poor results to advocating extra work. As a result, the Solidaires Informatique union – which has members in Ubisoft’s Paris offices – has called a strike for next week.
The union is calling the strike not only to protest Guillemot’s derogatory remarks, but also to demand better wages and working conditions at the company, notably a 10 percent wage increase due to the inflationary crisis and the introduction of a four-day work week.
Here is her statement in full:
STRIKE CALL UBISOFT PARIS
FRIDAY 27 JANUARY – AFTERNOON
According to Guillemot:
THE BALL IS WITH US
(but the money stays in his pocket)
In his recent statement, Mr. Guillemot announces a worrying future for Ubisoft.
If the call for employees to “be extra careful and strategic about their spending” is ironic given the company’s editorial strategy over the past few years, it’s not funny. When Mr. Guillemot speaks of “turnover” and “organizational adjustments”, it means: downsizing, discreet studio closures, salary cuts, veiled layoffs, etc.
On several occasions, Mr. Guillemot tries to pin the blame (once again) on the staff; He expects us to be mobilized, to “give everything”, to be “as efficient and lean as possible”. These words mean something: overtime, managerial pressure, burnout, etc.
Mr. Guillemot demands a lot from his employees, but without compensation. • Have wages kept pace with the high inflation of recent years?
• What about the implementation of the 4-day week?
• What has been set up for the teams that come out exhausted from the productions (like those from Just Dance or Mario)?
We demand:
– An immediate 10% increase in all salaries, regardless of annual increases, to compensate for inflation. With the hundreds of millions of dollars collected by Tencent, there is money in the coffers of employers.
– the improvement of working conditions, in particular through the introduction of the 4-day week.
– Transparency on workforce development, both locally and globally.
– A strong commitment against veiled dismissals and a condemnation of abusive management policies that pressure employees to resign.
And because Mr. Guillemot and his gang only understand power relations, Solidaires Informatique is calling on Ubisoft Paris employees to go on strike on Friday 27 January from 2pm to 6pm.
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For the next fiscal year, which runs through March 2024, Ubisoft plans to release at least one more unannounced big game skull and bones, avatarand Assassin’s Creed Mirage. Guillemot in his email to staff calls it “the biggest pipeline in Ubisoft’s history” and said he looks forward to sharing more at this year’s E3 conference in June.
