Raven Software Agrees First Union Contract With Microsoft

Illustration of the Raven Software office (photo: Wikipedia)

JAKARTA - Workers at Raven Software, a game studio and subsidiary Microsoft/Activision Blizzard, officially approved their first union contract between members of the Game Workers Alliance-CWA (GWA-CWA) and Microsoft.

After nearly three years of the negotiation process, this agreement is expected to ensure the protection of employees in the workplace, such as a 10 percent increase in salaries for two years and additional increases such as promotions.

Then, the elimination of crunch time, with a mandatory notice of at least seven days of overtime, no overtime for two consecutive weeks.

In addition, tenure recognition as a contract or temporary employee, clear job description and fair promotional process, expansion of disability accommodation, and protection during layoffs including severance pay, recall rights, large COBRA subsidies, and career transition services.

"After more than three years of organizing and negotiating, it feels great to see the results finally achieved," said Erin Hall, QA tester at Raven Software and member of the negotiating committee.

According to him, this is a contract that really appreciates the work of the QA team. He hopes that this agreement can show other game workers that organization is worth fighting for.

"Raising from the process of organizing to sitting face-to-face with one of the largest technology companies in the world is an extraordinary learning process, but we never forget our main goal," added Autun Prazuch, QA tester at Raven Software and member of the negotiating committee.

For information, in January 2022, GWA-CWA became the first unit within Activision Blizzard to form a union, shortly before Microsoft announced plans to acquire the company.