Fired Employees Sue BioWare for 'Unjustified Mistreatment'
After BioWare said goodbye to some of its employees in August, a lawsuit was filed by several of them.
A little over a month ago we informed about the fact that the creators of such series as Dragon Age and Mass Effect - BioWare - have laid off 50 employees. It turns out that a certain group of them will not sell their skin cheaply and have already sued their former employers.
The group in question consists of seven veterans of the company who were not satisfied with the severance pay they received when their contracts were terminated.
According to the law firm representing them, the amount of severance pay offered by BioWare was less than the legally required minimum applicable in Canada. It must amount to one month's salary for each year worked, plus the full value of all benefits taken into account (via GamesIndustry.biz).
The plaintiffs, who worked at BioWare for about 14 years, claim that the company offered them "a much lower amount," and although they tried to negotiate the terms of the severance package, studio representatives did not agree to the proposal. In addition to the full amount of compensation, the employees are now demanding compensation for damages caused by BioWare's "unjustified mistreatment."
"In light of the recent spate of layoffs in the industry and the fact that BioWare's nondisclosure agreements prevent us from showcasing recent work on Dragon Age: Dreadwolf in our portfolio, we are very concerned about the difficulty many of us will have in finding work during the holiday season.
While we continue to support the game we have worked so hard on and our colleagues continuing development, we are struggling to understand why BioWare is treating us this way during this difficult time," revealed one of the seven plaintiffs.
It seems that the August layoffs, which were supposed to make BioWare a more agile and focused studio, had the opposite effect.
