Nearly 1,900 Blizzard Entertainment workers voted to ratify their first union contract with Microsoft. Negotiations on the document lasted more than two years and ended with the consolidation of guarantees on generative AI, mention in credits, remote work and the layoff procedure.
At the same time, the agreement unites many of Blizzard’s small union cells into three large negotiating groups. The first covers the entire World of Warcraft team, the studio’s QA department, and Hearthstone. The second brings together platform and technology specialists.
A separate article of the agreement is devoted to artificial intelligence. It recognizes that AI tools “can be useful in the game development process to support human judgment and creativity, and AI workflows remain under appropriate human control and subject to verification for accuracy and quality.”
At the same time, the introduction of any AI technologies that will significantly affect the work of union employees requires preliminary negotiations on the consequences of such a step. That is, Microsoft will not be able to launch new automated pipelines unilaterally.
The credits clause ensures that current and former employees are credited by name in all games they worked on. The section on remote work assigns a hybrid format to some positions and describes the procedure by which an employee can request a full transition to remote mode.
The most voluminous block describes the rules for making reductions. It includes mandatory 60 days’ notice (or compensation in lieu of notice), severance pay equal to one week’s salary for every six months of service and the right to re-employment within 14 months.
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The document also contains a provision regarding succession. If Blizzard ever changes hands, the agreement will remain in full force and effect.
This is the fourth agreement between Microsoft and the union of one of its studios. Contracts were previously signed by ZeniMax testers and Raven Software employees, and earlier this year by Blizzard’s QA department, which will now be included in the new combined contract.
