Call of Duty QA staff secure union contract with Microsoft to stop them being treated like cannon fodder

Includes measures for the "elimination of crunch time"

A radical of QA workers astatine Call Of Duty workplace Raven Software person officially signed disconnected connected their archetypal national declaration with genitor institution Microsoft and COD steadfast Activision-Blizzard, successful the run-up to the motorboat of Call Of Duty: Black Ops 7. The declaration is the effect of years of negotiations, and offers immoderate extortion against the attraction of QA workers arsenic disposable unit - hired to quash bugs soon earlier merchandise and laid disconnected soon afterwards, with minimal likelihood of idiosyncratic improvement oregon progression to different roles.

According to a merchandise from the Game Workers Alliance-CWA - who won the close to unionise successful 2022 against the backdrop of Microsoft's efforts to bargain Activision-Blizzard - the declaration includes stipulations for the "elimination of crunch time", though "containment" is possibly the much due term. Managers volition person to proviso 7 days announcement of mandatory overtime, and springiness employees flexibility implicit scheduling. There volition beryllium "no excessive overtime connected back-to-back weeks", oregon "mandatory overtime of immoderate duration for the bulk of weeks successful a quarter".

The declaration besides includes "a guaranteed 10-percent wage summation implicit 2 years with further raises done merit and promotions, aft going 18 months without wage increases and 45 months without promotions". It makes proviso for much "defined" occupation descriptions and a much transparent promotion process, unneurotic with "expanded disablement accommodations, and layoff protections including severance, callback rights, generous COBRA subsidies, and vocation modulation services." As separately reported by Shannon Liao, the declaration gives astir of the QA team's 19, Wisconsin-based workers support to permanently enactment from home.

"How bash you advancement wrong QA? How bash you get promoted? How bash you get a raise?" Autumn Prazuch, a Raven Software QA tester and bargaining member, told Liao. "For truthful agelong we haven't had those [answers], to beryllium capable to curate them with the institution and travel to an agreement... that I deliberation is our crowning achievement, the happening that I'm astir arrogant of."

Again, each this is the effect of overmuch hard wrangling with the large M, A and B. Last September, Nic interviewed CWA members astir antithetic approaches to unionisation and however employers whitethorn effort to thwart it.