Immediately after the release of the Back to Hell expansion for Steel Division, nearly half of the studio went on strike to protest low wages, excessive crunch-time hours not fully compensated for and a failure to adhere to contractual agreements, according to this (French language) post on an industry union site.
Eugen were quick to counter the accusations, releasing a statement (also in French) that they have been operating fully within the law, and only inadvertently dipping below the minimum wage due to payslips requiring corrections, leading to them going out late – these problems are blamed on French bureaucracy. The company says it didn’t enforce a “crunch culture”, as it only asked some employees to work on Saturday once in 2010.
It would appear that there are definite issues that are more complex than just problems with labor reforms or overtime. At least that’s the assumption given that half the staff wouldn’t walk out for nothing.
The striking developers (also also in French) dismiss Eugen’s dismissal, and claim that their complaints against the company date back as far as 15 months. That would mean that there is a consistent pattern of abuse of labor if the accusations of the strikers are to be believed. 21 of the companies 44 employees are involved in the strike, and it doesn’t look like there’s going to be a quick resolution here.