Last Tuesday a worker accused Nintendo of America of having fired him for trying to unionize, though the company has since denied this was true, instead saying he was fired for leaking confidential information. Still, some former NoA employees took the opportunity to talk about his experience at the company, describing a toxic work environment.
The accusation by the former Nintendo of America employee was released last Tuesday by Stephen Totilo of Axios, who reported that a complaint had been filed with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). . In his complaint, the individual alleged that Nintendo and the company he uses to recruit contractors violated his right to organize.
Related: Employees accuse PlayStation of workplace discrimination and harassment.
On Wednesday, April 20, Nintendo contacted Totilo to clarify that they were aware of the complaint, which was made by “a contractor who had been fired for sharing confidential information and no other reason”. Besides. Nintendo’s representative says the company is not aware of its workers seeking to unionize and plans to cooperate with the NLRB investigation.
It is worth mentioning that last week the Gameboy Advance emulator for Nintendo Switch was leaked, which supposedly would eventually reach NSO, but it is unknown if the person responsible is the employee who made the complaint to the NLRB. Although this is all that is known about the case, some former employees took the opportunity to tell their experiences at Nintendo of America.
Read more: Indie studio Moon Studio accused of oppressive work environment.
One of the ex-employees who took the opportunity to tell his experiences was Boyks (@the_boyks on Twitter), who said he was a contractor for Nintendo of America for over 3 years, which turned out to be the most stressful of his career. “Co-workers were great, but I was constantly under pressure that I was going to get fired for little things like going to the bathroom or getting stuck in traffic 2 minutes before work”.
According to Boyks, Nintendo of America is controlling even with what its employees post on their social networks, saying that they could be fired if they said “I had a bad day at work” in their networks without additional context. “There were days driving to work that I thought I’d be better off if I closed my eyes and crashed into the car in front of me.Boyks says.
Besides: Ubisoft also reports a toxic work environment, with harassment and poor pay.
Another employee says he worked for 5 years before quitting at the end of the Nintendo Wii U era, but says all the comments are true. Apparently, Nintendo of America forces its employees to take two months of mandatory “rest” (and without pay) so that they do not generate seniority and do not have to give them benefits.
Another former employee said that she had to look for a temporary job when her two months of “mandatory rest” arrived and confirmed that Nintendo of America is a super controlling company, because they are not only strict with the appearance of their employees, but also with their manner. to speak “You couldn’t say that Mario Mario would be out on September 11 to customers. I had to say 9/11 or you could get a verbal or written warning.”
Another former employee who worked for Nintendo of America for 10 years says he applied for full-time positions a total of twenty-two times, only to have his application denied each time. In addition, he says that in many cases, after applying for said change, the positions were converted into jobs for contractors. According to WA labor laws, if a company keeps a contractor for more than 12 months they are obliged to hire them, which is why NoA implemented the mandatory 2 months off every 11 months of work.
Another former employee says that when she worked for Nintendo of America she said the word “union” once, in the break room, and was told by a more senior employee but in the same position that if someone higher up heard her they would be fired. According to Liz Schwab, this was over two decades ago, so it seems that Nintendo of America has had a toxic work environment ever since.
Although Nintendo said in its response to last week’s complaint that it is committed to providing a healthy work environment, the former employees’ statements make it clear that this is not the case, at least at Nintendo of America.