An engineer working for leading electronic video game publisher Electronic Arts has become the second staff member to file a class action lawsuit against the company, seeking back pay, damages and penalties for unpaid overtime:
Leander Hasty, who has worked for the firm since mid-2003, filed his suit yesterday against the company, arguing that a special Californian law which exempts certain creative professionals from overtime regulations should not apply to EA’s engineering staff. The Californian law, instituted in 2000, [applies to] programmers who make more than $41 an hour and are working in creative or intellectual roles on advanced technology projects - a definition which Hasty’s lawyers challenge in the case of EA employees.
Looks like EA is sticking to its corporate moniker of ‘challeng[ing] everything’! Video game programming is commonly ranked among the most stressful and unrewarding professions by its members; EA certainly isn’t making it much easier. According to this weblog entry by an anonymous employee, which catalysed the first legal action, employees were routinely required to work in 12 hour days — seven days a week — ‘with the occasional Saturday evening off for good behaviour’. The fact that this occurred without additional remuneration seems all the weirder:
And the kicker: for the honour of this treatment EA salaried employees receive a) no overtime; b) no compensation time… ; c) no additional sick or vacation leave… EA’s attitude toward this has been, ‘If they don’t like it, they can work someplace [sic] else.’ Put up or shut up and leave: this is the core of EA’s Human Resources policy. The concept of ethics or compassion or even intelligence with regard to getting the most out of one’s workforce never enters the equation: if they don’t want to sacrifice their lives and their health and their talent so that a multibillion dollar corporation can continue its Godzilla-stomp through the game industry, they can work someplace else. But can they?
And to think, EA was ranked ninth among the top 100 employers in 2003.
Source: Rob Fahey, Games Industry