Nintendo and former game tester reach settlement

The parties have reached a nearly $26,000 settlement

A former Nintendo game tester has agreed to a settlement with Nintendo and contracting agency Aston Carter.

Via Polygon, Aston Carter will take liability and pay $25,910 in back pay, damages, and interest, according to the documents.

The bilateral settlement agreement also entails an additional action. Nintendo must post notice, in email and on-site at its office, informing workers of their rights under the National Labor Relations Act.

This is the notice that Nintendo will have to post, redacted by the NLRB. Needs to be emailed to all Nintendo of America testers (contractors or otherwise), too

Redactions by the NLRB for the sake of this FOIA filing pic.twitter.com/DjBx4Peald

— Stephen Totilo (@stephentotilo) October 13, 2022

It specifically highlights that workers will not be stopped from discussing a union, exercising the right to raise issues or complaints, and that they will not be fired for union support.

Putting up notice

The worker, Mackenzie Clifton, was employed through Aston Carter to test Nintendo games.

Clifton filed a complaint in April with the National Labor Relations Board, alleging that they were fired for supporting a labor union. In August, a Kotaku report detailed that an employee (confirmed to be Clifton) had asked a question about industry unionization in a company meeting. They were later fired, allegedly over a violation of a non-disclosure agreement.

Nintendo told Polygon Clifton was let go due to divulging confidential information. Clifton disputed this and called it a misdirection. Speaking to Axios, they said the tweet they were shown by supervisors as proof of a violation was vague and did not clearly identify what they were working on.

A Nintendo spokesperson told Polygon the company is “thankful” a settlement was reached. Here’s the full statement:

“Nintendo is thankful that a resolution was reached in the NLRB matter so that we can continue to focus on ensuring that our working environment remains welcoming and supportive for all our employees and associates. That approach is fundamental to our company values. As part of the public settlement all parties remain obligated not to disclose Nintendo’s confidential business information and trade secrets, which are paramount to our development process and product offerings.”

Clifton also gave Axios’ Stephen Totilo a statement:

Fired Nintendo (NOA) tester Mackenzie Clifton tells me: "My original goal behind filing the charge was to show my coworkers at NOA what their rights are and what happens when they choose to exercise them. In that sense,the terms of this settlement are exactly what I hoped to see"

— Stephen Totilo (@stephentotilo) October 13, 2022