Star Citizen studio Cloud Imperium Games has been ordered to pay £27,600 to a former employee after the latter won a discrimination case against the company. The case involved senior programmer Paul Ah-Thion and was based on a return-to-office policy that compelled employees to work from a new central Manchester office that was 15 miles from the previous Wilmslow location.
Ah-Thion, who had been an in-office employee at Wilmslow, wanted to remain a work from home employee because of his disability. However, his requests were turned down and this resulted in his dismissal from the company. CIG had been implementing the work from home policy for several years but changed the policy in 2022 to be more rigid. The tribunal stated that it would have been a reasonable adjustment to allow Ah-Thion to work from home and rejected CIG’s arguments about his performance as being rather post hoc.
The penalty that was imposed by the tribunal was £27,748 for CIG which comprises of £14,000 for lost wages and £12,000 for the injury to the feelings. Ah-Thion stated the ordeal that he went through in the two-year trial, and said that being autistic made it even harder. He was glad for the employment tribunal system through which he could get justice without having to pay for expensive lawyers.
From the onset, Ah-Thion said that it was obvious that CIG did not want people to work from home after the company invested in a new office in Manchester. He accused the company of post rationalizing their refusal to grant his request while at the same time disregarding disability legislation. It was satisfying for him that the tribunal was able to look beyond the veil of CIG’s rhetoric.
CIG, which has attracted over $711 million in funding for Star Citizen, plans to grow in the UK, including the expansion of its Manchester studio from 400 to 1,000 employees by 2026. Eurogamer has contacted CIG for its response to the tribunal’s ruling
This case highlights the need for organizations to follow the disability legislation and accommodate employees with disabilities even in the current world where working from home is possible and sometimes essential.
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