If there is one area where strikes are rare, it is the video game industry. In France, the last case recorded dates from 2011 and concerned the late studio Eden. Eugen Systems, a specialist in strategy games, is currently experiencing the same setbacks.
If you are a real time strategy gaming enthusiast, chances are you have played at least one game from Eugen Systems. With titles like Act of War, Ruse, or Wargame : European Escalation , the Parisian studio has made a nice name, offering mostly deep and demanding games, with a monumental lifespan.
This image of "sure value" is however tainted since a few days, since 21 employees of the company - more than half of the total workforce - are on strike since Wednesday, February 14th. The Video Game Workers Union (STJV) is also releasing a statement from the strikers . The latter mention a "serious violation" of their rights and criticize Eugen's management of his salary policy: " In the face of the refusal to pay us as the law requires, and in the face of the manifest lack of consideration for the value of our work, we came to the conclusion that, to make ourselves heard, we had no option but to go on strike. "
Also pointed out is a fraudulent practice regarding the payment of overtime (which, as we know, are commonplace in the video game sector):
"Arriving at the office, each of us was able to discover several emails on his professional box: first a collective mail telling us that our overtime, unpaid until now, a topic of litigation since the beginning, n ' would have been absent from our payslips only through the fault of our two successive payroll managers. In short, what we presented as an infringement of our rights is now presented to us as an administrative error. Thus, our gross salary has decreased to justify our overtime without regulating us by one cent. Even though these new gross wages are considered as several employees below the legal minimums. "
An industry in turmoil
These wage claims are not recent at Eugen, since the employees claim an adjustment of their remuneration since the end of 2016. In an investigation of Mediapart and Canard PC , also relayed by Gamekult , one discovers indeed that the studio does not respect the grid of remuneration of the Syntec collective agreement to which it is attached. Thus, an employee with a bac + 4 or +5, supposed to be an engineer, is paid at the same level as a supervisor or technician, the equivalent of a bac + 2.
Started Wednesday, the strike at Eugen Systems was renewed yesterday. This movement is in any case significant of a gradual change of paradigm in the video game industry, in France at least. Remember that another Parisian studio, Quantic Dreams, has been in the eye of the storm for several weeks, following the publication of investigations revealing toxic management and fraudulent financial maneuvers.