While less than half believe that labour laws protect them from their employers
Only a third of developers know their labour rights, a new study has revealed.
Over 2,500 industry members had been asked if they fully understood the labour laws in their own region. 36 per cent of respondents claimed they did, but a fifth revealed they had no understanding of their rights.
The majority – 46 per cent – claimed they only knew little about their labour laws.
The data comes as part of a new push to educate workers’ rights in the wake of the ‘Rockstar wives’ scandal.
The International Game Developers Association has established a new Quality of Life Special Interest Group, and the association has kick-started its new initiative with a wide-ranging survey of its membership.
Advertisement
The full details of that survey will be offered at the upcoming Game Developers Conference, but Develop has been granted an exclusive sneak peek at some of its most critical findings.
The preliminary results show that 42 per cent of those surveyed believed existing labour laws protected them from a grievance between employer and employee. However, 47 per cent of the 2,159 respondents were unsure if they did, with the remaining 11 per cent claiming that labour laws wouldn’t provide protection.
Develop's exclusive look at the IGDA survey can be found here.
Sounds like this supports your other piece about Bosses being threatened by the possibility of a union has its roots here.
"The International Game Developers Association has established a new Quality of Life Special Interest Group"
No, it's been around ages. It just happens to do nothing but knock out these surveys once a year and hoping they don't piss anyone who gives them money.
Hey BC,
Not quite true - or rather, it's only just being taken seriously within the group. I've been observing efforts for a while, hence how we got this early preview of the bigger thing - it may have been talked about in the past but this is the first time it's had proper leadership/an agenda.
And to say that they hope they don't piss anyone off who gives them money is kind of unfair - they do have to walk a thin line, but they are definitely erring on the side of action/overtness since the relaunch. Just look at their statement regarding the Rockstar Wives stuff - it was pretty loaded, and that was the final draft.
There are a lot of people who want to do a lot of good in that SIG, but more than any other SIG it could cause a whole lot of trouble, legal or otherwise. So progress is slow. There have been an awful lot of good, forward-thinking plans put forward only to fall down because of the oceans of legal issues surrounding employment - let alone that the organisation is 'international', and every country's labour laws are different.
But with people like Judy leading it, and ea_spouse herself helping out considerably, hopefully they'll be able to get some momentum going - but first of all, they still have to work out what they're legally entitled to do. I can tell you, though, that these are people with enough passion about the issue to finally do more than just surveys.
