An engineer working for leading electronic video game publisher Electronic Arts has become the second staff member to file a class action lawsuit against the company, seeking back pay, damages and penalties for unpaid overtime:
Leander Hasty, who has worked for the firm since mid-2003, filed his suit yesterday against the company, arguing that a special Californian law which exempts certain creative professionals from overtime regulations should not apply to EA’s engineering staff.
The Californian law, instituted in 2000, [applies to] programmers who make more than $41 an hour and are working in creative or intellectual roles on advanced technology projects – a definition which Hasty’s lawyers challenge in the case of EA employees.
Video game programming is commonly ranked among the most stressful and unrewarding professions by its members; EA certainly isn’t making it much easier, despite ranking ninth among the top 100 employers in 2003. The claim raises a real question about how far the Californian exemption for creative professionals extends to engineering staff in the games industry.
According to this weblog entry by an anonymous employee, which catalysed the first legal action, employees were routinely required to work 12 hour days — seven days a week — ‘with the occasional Saturday evening off for good behaviour’. This was reportedly without additional remuneration.
Source: Rob Fahey, Games Industry
