Back in August, BioWare laid off 50 employees that were reportedly working on Dragon Age: Dreadwolf. Now, seven of those employees are suing the studio in Alberta, claiming that the severance pay they received was too low.
According to GamesIndustry.biz, the plaintiffs say that most cases of termination without cause in Alberta give the affected employees at least one month of severance pay per year of service, plus “full value of all benefits included.” The plaintiffs further claim that the severance that they received was “significantly less” than that. The plaintiffs reportedly each have average tenure of 14 years at BioWare.
In a statement, the staff also alleged that BioWare would not negotiate the severance offered. One said that the NDAs surrounding the high-profile Dreadwolf project means that they can’t show any recent work from the game in their portfolios, which makes them “very concerned” about their prospects for finding another industry job. The group’s counsel, R. Alex Kennedy, further stated that BioWare may have included provisions in these agreements that are “contrary to the Employment Standards Code.”