Ubisoft Employees Promoted to Strike over Office Return Policy

Ubisoft’s decision to have their employees return to office-based work, a minimum of three days per week, is not going down well in France. Since last year, the company has been tweaking these plans, originally asking Montreal employees to come in for two days a week, as reported initially. More recently, to maintain uniformity across all offices, the policy shifted to three days a week.

However, French employees and their representative union, Syndicat des Travailleurs et Travailleuses du Jeu Vidéo (STJV), are not in favor of this policy change. A post released to encourage strikes between October 15 and 17 suggests that Ubisoft’s workforce has adapted well to remote working for over five years. The post also implies that this policy change could cause significant disruption in the lives of the employees; a situation that Ubisoft should be well aware of. The repercussions of this move could include job losses, project disarray, and increased mental health risks for the remaining employees, according to the post.

The action proposed by STJV includes three specific demands: a formal agreement on remote work, a raise in wages, and the commencement of “a social dialogue”. The union hopes this will ensure that employees can decide how many days they work from the office each week. It is also an attempt to counter the fall in living standards by reinstating profit-sharing. The post criticizes management’s approach to dialogues, stating, “Management seems indeed to confuse monologue with dialogue”. Evidently, Ubisoft employees are seeking a conversation, not instructions. This comes at a time when Ubisoft isn’t financially strong, following the recent postponement of the latest Assassin’s Creed and withdrawal from the TGS 2024 event.