Employment tribunal 'certain' says ex employee who claims he worked 400 hours unpaid
A former programmer made redundant at Codemasters Guildford says he is ready to take his former employer all the way to court after making several allegations about crunch and overtime.
Semi Essessi, who was employed at the Codemasters studio for thirteen months until it closed in November, claims to have worked at least 400 hours overtime without pay.
He has provided documents that appear to show he worked from 10am until midnight on Friday 17th of June last year, and has other figures which suggest this was not an isolated issue.
A Codemasters source has told Develop that these work periods were voluntary, and has claimed that Essessi himself knew these periods of overtime were unpaid.
“We didn’t force him to work these hours,” the source said. “People were not chained to their desks.”
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Essessi told Develop that he accepts he was not aware of the particular HR procedures for making a formal suggestion that overtime should be paid.
He said that, when in the midst of an intensive period finishing work on the Bodycount project, he had made numerous verbal suggestions that overtime should be paid.
“I just wasn’t aware of the formal procedure at the time,” he said, “and I thought I was going to work there for a while. I had no idea the studio was going to close.”
Codemasters Guildford shut down in November last year, following dismal sales of its FPS Bodycount.
Essessi’s solicitor has since advised that Codemasters had failed to adhere to European laws on working hours and break periods.
“I’m absolutely certain this will end in an employment tribunal, and I really don’t mind,” Essessi told Develop.
“There’s not anything that can stop this happening now. I’m just so angry about how Codemasters has treated myself and other staff.”
The Working Time Directive is an EU law which enforces that staff are entitled to paid breaks, as well as a rest of at least 11 hours per 24-hour periods. It also rules that businesses enforce a 48-hour cap on working weeks.
Essessi said he is unsure whether he waived his rights to this directive when signing a contract with Codemasters.
Codemasters’ dispute with Essessi is further complicated by a separate issue where the publisher appears to have accidently paid staff an additional month’s pay.
Former workers have many theories for the extra payment, Essessi said. He claimed that some believed that being paid an extra month was normal procedure, though Essessi himself alleged on his blog that the wages amounted to ‘hush money’ over the alleged working conditions.
A Codemasters source, who claims to have had contacts at Guildford, told Develop that some staff knew the overpayment was a clear administrative error.
Codemasters has since asked staff to repay the wage sums. Many already have, Develop understands, while a few like Essessi have contested the repayment and others have not made contact with the publisher.
A legal client for the publisher has issued letters to some staff, demanding the money be returned.
Essessi told Develop he is willing to repay the sum, though in broken monthly payments far smaller than Codemasters is suggesting.
"The company has been, and continues to be, in dialogue with Essessi regarding the reimbursement of funds paid into his account following an administrative error, as it is entitled to,” read a Codemasters statement sent to Develop.
“As the conversation regarding his personal situation is ongoing, the company has not pursued it as a legal matter with him.”
Essessi has been writing a blog about his experience with Codemasters. In the interests of balance Develop has not linked to it.
Doesn't sound like he has much of a case there.
Was that his first job? Didn't he know how the industry operates? Well, he's not getting a new job in the games industry, I hope he understands.
Sorry to say it's not a story and he doesn't have much legally to mount a proper case - he hasn't taken them to court, he is thinking of it. He hasn't been forced to work overtime, its always "voluntary". Although there is a mentality in UK studios that if you leave early then everyone looks at you like you are slacking. I don't think this will ever disappear since dev teams like to pour their souls into making games and sadly part of that is working long hours to make sure their game is up there with the best. Teams do need to support devs who work long hours more though, especially managers who should notice people pulling long hours and to remind them to have some work-life balance. Support is key to not getting burnt out and jaded.
The "voluntary" overtime is a standard thing. I don't expect him to earn himself any bonus points towards being recruited to any other company, even outside the games industry. If they wanted overtime, they would ask for it and pay for it.
11 hours? haha noob try sleeping 5 a day
@Mr.X - that's nothing to brag about
I don't think he cares if he gets another. Sounds like they burnt him out. It happens, something similar happened to me as I guess all the rest of you.
However don't be too sure he won't win the case, technically you can't sign away your rights (a company I worked for asked us to do it before starting a project too) so I would love to see this tested in a court. As for voluntary, again I would love to see that tested in a court as well - tbh I would imagine by law it's the duty of the employer to make sure no-one broke that european law, not try to get around it.
Anyone on a dev team who pours more of their heart and soul into a project than they do their own family, is quite frankly, an idiot.
I am in university now, as a mature student, and although I recognise that paid overtime on occasion is standard in most jobs, I also recognise that unpaid overtime every day is easily described by another word: Abuse.
I have read so many horror stories over the years about devs getting burned out over the amount of overtime being expected of them, missing their families, and losing touch with the world around them...
I should add that I have industry experience myself, and that when I rejoin the industry post-graduation I will no problem with clocking out regularly at the end of the working day to go home to my family. They will come first, not the opinion of some sad bastard who looks down upon others for not wanting to burn themselves out, just so they can stay in the office all night and not get paid for it, night after night.
And anyone who does the whole "doing overtime in exchange for time-in-leiu" thing is a mug, unless they have a 100% guarantee that they will still have a job when it comes to taking said time off...a guarantee which sadly does not exist for most game devlopers any more. If there is no guarantee (i.e. signed contract) stating that if you lose the job (studio closes, etc) then you'll be paid in full for the time-in-lieu that was accreued then you would be very VERY silly to take such an option.
Mr Yan, I suspect then you will find yourself not even surviving your probation, probably escorted out with phrases like "not a team-player", "lacks inititive" or "refuses to own the problem".
If you're really lucky they might extend your probation period until gold before canning your ass.
"I should add that I have industry experience myself, and that when I rejoin the industry post-graduation I will no problem with clocking out regularly at the end of the working day to go home to my family. They will come first, not the opinion of some sad bastard who looks down upon others for not wanting to burn themselves out, just so they can stay in the office all night and not get paid for it, night after night."
Sounds like you are the exact type of person I referred to Neil. Real shame, as it is people like you who are perpetuating this stupid "pro-excessive and/or unpaid crunch" attitude.
However, since you know absolutley nothing about myself, or any of my past achievements, then I'll let you off for making such comments, but suffice to say it looks like your post was an obvious attempt at trolling. Suffice to say in the past I never had to put in stupid amounts of unpaid overtime, and if you do, and do not mind seeing your life slip away in front of your eyes with no payoff, then you are a fool.
By the way, Mystic Meg just called, she said she wants her crystal ball back!
I'm with Mr Yan here. It is the rsponsibility of the employer to monitor their staff to make sure that employment laws are being broken.
Working a team for long hours will DAMAGE the product. Perhaps that's the reason why their game bombed? Tired staff just wanting to get the game done and in the can so that they can go home and get some sleep rather than goig at it with fresh-faced enthusiasm.
I know a bunch of developers from knock off EVERY day at 5:50 / 6:00 and they are the best, most reliable and creative ones on the team.
I doubt if Semi's case will actually amount to anything as Codies have some pretty hot layers and I know their contracts are watertight. However, I "THINK" that the waiver of EU time directives is a SEPARATE form that needs to be signed, so would have been obvious to him - even then, I think there ARE limits to the amount of work that staff can still do and have to at least have 1 day off in 7... anyone have the rules to hand?
