KWS Edmonton United group cites low pay and Covid as catalysts for change

QA contractors working directly on thenext Dragon Agewith BioWare Edmonton have filed to unionise, just the latest in a string of such decisions affecting high-profile companies throughout the industry. The workers are employed by the internationally-operating contract services company Keywords Studios but contracted out to BioWare. They’ve now formed the KWS Edmonton United group and have named low pay and concern at being instructed back into the office while Covid-19 remains a danger as their reasons to seek collective bargaining.

Keywords contractors have also contributed to BioWare forMass Effect: Legendary Editionand DLC forStar Wars: The Old Republic. Game Developerreportthe contractors are struggling to live in Edmonton on the provincial minimum wage of $15 (£9) per hour they’re receiving. The QA testers say in-house staff doing the same job at BioWare make twice as much money as they do, while stressing that their issue is with Keywords Studios rather than co-workers at BioWare. A KWS Edmonton United reptold Kotakuthat the decision to unionise came when Keywords told the testers they’d have to return to the office full-time from May 9th despite Covid cases in Alberta still reporting at around 1,000 daily, while full-time BioWare testers could still work from home.

Unionising QA staff at Raven Software – the Game Workers Alliance (GWA) – shared atweet of solidaritywith Keywords Studios workers, who credit the Raven staff’s example for their decision to unionise. Raven’s 21 QA staff haveonly this weekwon the option to vote on unionising themselves. Earlier this month Activision Blizzardmade all their temporary QA testers full-time, introduced benefits and bumped up pay, but Raven Software workers were contentiously left out by their parent company. Actiblizz said the GWA couldn’t receive the same treatment as they had yet to unionise; the GWA accused Actiblizz of divide-and-conquer tactics.

Correction: This article previously stated that the $15 minimum wage applied nationally instead of by province.