Workers at Croatian Studio Gamechuck Have Formed a Union

The employees of the Croatian video game development studio Gamechuck have unionized under the banner of Workers of Gamechuck D.O.O. Members. The studio and Croatian union Novi Sindikat signed the collective agreement on April 29, making it the first union in Croatia’s gaming industry.

"The video games industry is growing rapidly in the Republic of Croatia, and concurrently, so do the opportunities for the exploitation of workers, especially when it comes to the infamous 'crunch time', " said Igor Gajic, union commissioner in Gamechuck. "Fortunately, crunch is absent in Gamechuck, but that does not mean it cannot and will not happen. The collective agreement protects Gamechuck’s workers against such situations. I believe that this is a big step for workers’ rights in the video games industry in the Republic of Croatia."

The collective agreement for Gamechuck workers brings part-time work from 8 hours a day to 6 hours and 45 minutes a day, with these 45 minutes being a mandatory break. Furthermore, the number of days off for annual leave has been increased to a minimum of 24.

Gamechuck is also committed to reporting financial transactions to workers every three months. The company's employees are also entitled to a 10% share of the company’s profits at the end of the year.

According to the marketing manager at Gamechuck Lucija Pilić, the decision to unionize was made as "it felt like there was much space to improve in terms of the rights of workers and their protection". He also noted that the unionization process went "smoothly".

The news of Gamechuck workers forming a union follows the recent labor organizing efforts at other game studios. In January, QA workers from Activision Blizzard's Raven Software announced the formation of the union, and at the end of April, contracted staffers from Keywords Studios filed for a union.

You can learn more about the new union by reading the Workers of Gamechuck D.O.O agreement here. Also, don't forget to join our new Reddit page, our new Telegram channel, follow us on Instagram and Twitter, where we are sharing breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.