UK entertainment union calls for developers to set their own agenda for unionisation
UK media and entertainment union BECTU has said that it could tackle the ‘excessive hours of work culture’ in the games industry if more developers were to join.
Responding to Develop’s Global Quality of Life Survey, the results of which were published in issue 94, BECTU’s Arts & Entertainment Division supervisor Willy Donaghy said that our findings, which found that 98 per cent of game developers do not receive paid ovetime, were in line with the organisation’s investigations.
But he warned that employers need to be reminded that they have an ‘overriding duty of care to staff’: “I doubt that many employers – if any at all – have undertaken a risk assessment on the hours of work of their staff.
“It’s interesting that there is a relatively high level of pension and private health care provision, although a cynic would say that the health care provision is needed because the excessive hours of work will inevitably lead to illness.”
Many workers within the development industry are unaware that there is even a trade union that covers them, and more still wonder how game developers fit into an organisation more traditionally focused on stage and screen.
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Donaghy admits that the union doesn’t have many game developer members – “There’s no history of trade union organisation in the games industry to which workers can refer to and identify with, which is a difficulty,” he said. But he is keen to point out that much can be done for those thinking of joining.
“BECTU is proud of its achievements over the years, and I’m confident that we could address the excessive hours of work culture in the games industry and the problems that this brings to workplaces and home life. However, it is BECTU policy that the members identify the issues that they want addressed rather than ‘the union’ telling them the issues to be addressed – whether that is to do with pay and conditions, health and safety, or training.”
One of the common arguments used against the unionisation is that applying a rigid structure to a process as ‘organic’ as game development will restrict the creativity of workers, resulting in worse products. We put this to Donaghy, and he pointed out that the union’s experience in other sectors proves that wouldn’t be the case.
“BECTU traditionally organises within theatre and live events, film and television: these are UK sectors that are recognised and applauded around the world for creativity and innovation. Our record speaks for itself in these industries, and union recognition has helped rather than hindered this creativity and innovation.”
Another retort often cited by studio heads is that making overtime official just incentivises staff to not work as hard during the day. “Our experience is the opposite,” said Donaghy when presented with this. “Rules on overtime tend to encourage productivity rather than create a barrier. Workers do not want to work over their basic wage to get a decent rate of pay.”
Whether or not the development industry should unionise is a topic that many disagree on - especially with international competition meaning that the UK is already less favourable than other countries when it comes to costs. Regardless of the means, however, very few would disagree that the industry still has far to go on quality of life issues.
Would unions help or hinder the UK's development industry and workforce? Let us know your thoughts below or at ed.fear@intentmedia.co.uk
Wondered this for a while. I don't think the games industry here will ever become heavily unionised. I'm also not sure it should.
Software development is the classic knowledge industry - it really wouldn't take very much for large multinationals to pull their operations out of the UK, if they were of inclined. And I suspect if the industry here became unionised and the "flexibility" of the workforce reduced, then you would have that. Move work to India or China or Singapore where workers have less rights, and are cheaper. you may even see it in Canada in a few years if Quebec tries to withdraw its tax breaks systems and let its studios stand on their own two feet.
I've heard that unions are the reason why a lot of film work has moved from LA (where they're very strong) to London (where they're not). Interesting that Donaghy says that his union is strong in film here - I wonder what exactly he means by that? From what I hear, it's not on the FX side.
Having said that, one does wonder if developers here need someone to speak for them and address their issues. Studios have it with TIGA, but individual developers don't have anything they readily recognise.
Trying to freeze the working time of developers might be hurtful, because this is just a creative industry as is the film and tv industry, where there is no set amount of hours per day (in most cases) and people just dive into the project for weeks or months, with or without union. The best way to go would be to start treating the developers as film stars (actors and crew) as it was so insightfully suggested in an article from developer magazine a couple of months ago. This way, projects would be finished in a much better fashion, professionals would be payed a lot more and the experiences, along with time to dig into the profession and knowledge (between projects for example), would make even better developers, helping the industry evolve as a whole, not only in graphics.
Sound a bit like an utopia, or at least a huge change. But it will depend on the freedom the awesome professionals we have today want upon themselves and how fair they can work it out with the business/production side of the industry. This is the path I want to trace as I enter the industry.
I have a feeling that the union is just tapping new members from another source so they can have a bit more cash and influence. Sorry to be cynical, but I think they are more interested in that than our welfare.
It's catch 22 anyway. They need more games people to join for it to be an attractive and useful prospect for games people to join.
If there was demand then a union would have been created from within already. All a union needs people to stand together for better conditions. Quite frankly, too many people are too scared of several naive kids working for next to nothing replacing them.
As regards people making their own union, this comment was made by a studio head a few years ago "if I hear any mention of unions, those involved will be sacked. If forced, I would sack and replace the entire staff. It would hurt but I would do it". Remember that people in game development are young, the exploitation of the industry ensures there aren't many older staff except in management. I think a sensible union could help a lot, but it won't happen from the ground up. The people at the bottom are too young and naive, the people at the top too used to exploiting free hours. If we can't compete without exploiting people then we shouldn't be in business. Flexibility is one thing, but 98% of people working regular extra hours for nothing is draconian.
What is, frankly, offensive to most studio heads and managers, is the implication that most studios do not already exercise a “duty of care”. I work with a range of UK studios and this year I've seen every single one, despite their recent hardships, fighting irrationally hard to save their peoples' jobs – placing loyalty and commitment to their staff above strict business logic. Add to that the efforts made in other areas (I'll resist writing a rant about how much better treated games devs are in most UK studios than staff in any other industry I've seen or worked in), and the people who run the UK's studios should get applause, not this! Implying that employers have forgotten that they have a duty of care? Suggesting that game development would be much better if employers were seen as the source of a problem to be “tackled”? But I guess there isn't a headline to be had from “studios' managers stand by their people, again and again.”
I'm treated pretty well where I am and I know of other studios that are good to work for too. I'd even go so far to say that some places are so nice to work for that crunch becomes inevitable :/
There are some bad companies, or at least companies that don't suit your way of doing things, and in that case ...don't work for them!
What the industry could do with is better communications between the hard working grunts rather than an organised union.
- "hey guys, I'm having a hell of a time here"
- "well it's not like that where I am, why not come work here since good people are always in demand"
- "good idea, maybe my company will learn about keeping a hold of good staff if I leave too"
- "hey, we're talking very clearly and in full detail in a manner we wouldn't usually speak"
- "indeed, friend. indeed. "
@BC,
"What the industry could do with is better communications between the hard working grunts rather than an organised union."
This already exists- its a private Industry forum named The Chaos Engine, only open to non-management developers. Information about what companies are like to work for is openly shared as is a huge amount of advice, industry discussion, games debate, and a fair bit of irrelevant nonsense.
Check it out at thechaosengine dot com.
Already have done :D
But a lot of folk have trouble getting on it because of a massive backlog of requests. So only a fraction of non-management drones are actually on it.
It's good to a point but perhaps something more open is needed that allows very anonymous posts. Remember all the good stuff that used to be on gamasutra before it got rid of anonymous comments?
@BC
It's something we've considered doing ourselves, but what with TCE already doing a good job on the non-anon front, and what we saw as a reticence to post anonymously, we decided against it. Maybe we were wrong to do so!
But people rarely use their real names on here, and you don't have to put in a real e-mail address either, so hopefully we're someway towards it.
And I dread to think what's said about us on TCE! :D
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