First Ontario game dev labour union formed at Joydrop, majority of staff who voted reportedly laid off

Update, September 19 2024: This article previous stated that Joydrop/Mikutech was facing an unfair labour practice charge with the Ontario Labor Board. The parties involved managed to resolve their issues without a hearing in March 2024. The article below has been updated to reflect this.

Update, September 16 2024: Joydrop has reached out with a statement, alleging that some of the claims below are false, and that the ONLB unfair labour practice charge are separate to its workers unionising.

"The two matters are completely unrelated and we've come to a resolution between the parties," said James Campbell, vice president of Joydrop. "Over the years, our talented team has been key to building our reputation for world class work so we strive to maintain our staff. The past several quarters have been challenging for the games industry; as a small service provider we have to adapt to market conditions so we can continue to nurture talent, deliver top-notch work for gaming clients, and explore opportunities in growth industries."

This article previously stated Joydrop was facing three charges from the ONLB, but the firm says it is only one. The company also claims the Zoom call regarding the layoffs was also unrelated to the unionisation and was in response to business conditions.

Joydrop has also disputed some of the financial claims Reilly has made, stating that he was in a junior position and will not have been privy to all of this information.

GamesIndustry.biz is still in touch with various parties to get more detail and clarity.

Original story, September 13 2024: The first labour union of game developers in Ontario was formed by staff at Joydrop, only for the majority of employees that voted to reportedly be laid off two working days after the victory.

Joydrop is the gaming brand of London-based service agency Mikutech, founded in 2013 by Mark Mikulec. It specialises in work-for-hire services, including porting and co-development, and has worked with the likes of Gearbox, Skybound and Armor Games Studios.

Former employee Stephan Reilly tells GamesIndustry.biz that 16 of 17 members voted in favour of unionsation at Joydrop. The voting period concluded on December 19, 2023. According to Reilly, Mikulec then proceeded to terminate 14 of those who voted.

Reilly claims the devs were laid off during a Zoom call on January 8, 2024, which was the day developers were to resume work following the holidays. The team were reportedly notified the night before, with the meeting being described as a "New Year meeting" and that it would be held online as the company was "updating and resetting [its] new security policies."

Once the call began, Reilly said staff were informed their employment was being terminated with management citing "poor sales" as the reason.

Reilly claims that following his termination, he was contacted by a developer who said Mikulec allegedly asked about "being hired for [his] former position." Reilly adds it was "unclear whether this was at Joydrop or a new company."

GamesIndustry.biz has reached out to Mikutech for further clarification and comment.

Mikutech was facing an unfair labour practice charge in front of the Ontario Labour Board, with The United Food and Commercial Workers of Canada is representing the workers.

However, the parties managed to resolve their issues without a hearing in March 2024

Prior to the termination, Joydrop won a Tech Alliance grant for $40,000 in November 2023, and was in the process of receiving Ontario Creates and Canada Media Fund grants which "several" of those terminated helped to compile last summer.

Reilly says that Telefilm Canada program coordinator Aaron Nguyen told the devs via email that it was "discussing internally" about whether the unfair labour practice charges would affect Joydrop's ability to receive the CMF grants.

"Blowing up your whole team doesn't make any sense to me if your goal is to create games, and as the pseudo-head game designer at Joydrop on our internal IP it was in an ideal situation," says Reilly.

"We had millions of dollars in grant money about to come in, we had a publisher who was very interested, we had investor interest, we just won a Tech Alliance Grant for $40,000, our team was working really well together and getting into a groove.

"It was the perfect situation for someone who wants to make games. Which leads me to believe that's simply not what Mark wanted, he wanted something else."