UK video game retailer GAME, which has more than 240 stores across the country, is laying off in-store staff below the manager level, IGN has learned.
Following a preliminary announcement on April 8, staff were informed via email today, April 12, they were at risk of losing their jobs and invited to a meeting to discuss it. This comes despite a regional manager telling staff on a mass Microsoft Teams call on April 8 they would definitely be made redundant. IGN understands staff will be offered a zero hour contract back, which doesn't guarantee any work on a week to week basis.
"As part of these proposed changes your role has been identified as being potentially at risk of redundancy," the email told staff. "We are keen to discuss any concerns you may have and work with you to explore any alternative ideas or suggestions you may have and potential ways to avoid redundancy."
One current employee who wished to remain anonymous told IGN this was the worst staff had ever felt at GAME, even more so than when the company went into administration in 2012. "It's not my first rodeo but I've never seen morale this low," they said. "Even the administration wasn't this bad. At least the administration started early in the day and we were shut by lunch."
Staff were expected to work in the interim despite being informed of the impending lay offs, and had to wait four days without updates until April 12 when the email arrived. "Treating workers decently doesn't generate excess value for shareholders," the employee said. Some of the replacement jobs were even advertised online before staff had received the email and without official notice from GAME.
The initial announcement saw a regional manager read from a script lasting around three minutes and told staff listening they should talk to their immediate area managers if they had any questions.
"In response to the significant current and long term economic challenges that the business faces, GAME Retail Limited are proposing to rightsize the teams working across our stories, including making our teams more resilient to change by introducing flexibility," the regional manager told staff, with wording also used in the email.
"I just want to be clear that you will be made redundant from the [assistant manager] role. However, there will be the opportunity to take your redundancy, if you are entitled to redundancy, and come back as cast," they said, after thanking staff for their hard work and saying the company would do all it could to minimise the effects of the lay offs.
GAME agreed to a takeover by Frasers Group in 2019 which prompted a series of changes in the business, perhaps most significantly in the closure of most standalone stories to instead incorporate them into Sports Direct or House of Fraser retail locations (stores Frasers Group also owns).
Staff structure was also changed, as instead of having a traditional hierarchy with managers being supported by assistant managers and sales assistants below them, many staff who weren't laid off amid the transition to a Sports Direct or House of Fraser were made assistant managers on contracts as low as 10 hours per week. This gave all staff the ability to run a store independently without need for two employees to be working at the same time.
"At that time my monthly pay as an assistant manager was enough to cover my gas and electricity and my council tax. That was it," one former employee told IGN anonymously. "It seems like the company only cares about profit and not its employees."
IGN has asked Frasers Group for comment.
Image Credit: Peter Dazeley / Getty Images
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.
