Back in April, Mackenzie Clifton filed a National Labor Relations Board complaint against Nintendo of America and staffing agency Aston Carter, claiming they were fired for supporting a labor union, according to court documents. Now, the parties have settled their dispute.
In documents obtained by Polygon, Aston Carter takes the financial brunt of the settlement and will pay the NLRB charge, and it will also pay the former QA worker damages. Clifton’s settlement includes $25,910 in back pay, damages, and interest.
When the complaint was filed back in April, Clifton claimed they were fired in February 2022 because they asked a question about unions, but Nintendo management did not address their question in the meeting that day. Instead, they told their supervisor called them and told them it was a “downer question” and directed them to the staffing agency for that kind of question instead of Nintendo.
After the complaint was filed, Nintendo denied that Clifton was fired for discussing unions at the meeting, and instead was fired because they revealed confidential information. The company pointed to a vague tweet drafted by Clifton that said “in today’s build someone somewhere must have deleted every other texture in the game bc everything is now red. Just like, pure red. it’s very silly.”
In the months that followed, more contracted Nintendo workers came forward and discussed their experience with the company, most of them negative. Now, Nintendo and Aston Carter are dealing with a second NLRB complaint that was filed in August, which claims that a worker was fired due to protesting the terms of their employment and talking about their wage. It is illegal to prevent workers from discussing their wages with other workers in the United States.
The second NLRB complaint is still open and nothing has been filed since the original complaint. Those interested in the outcome will likely have to wait a significant amount of time before that complaint is resolved.
