Take-Two facing court trial on ‘unpaid overtime’

Publishing giant Take-Two is set for a court appearance after denying that it had refused a number of employees their right for minimum wage and overtime pay.

A cache of court documents read by Develop shows the publisher is deeply engaged in a lawsuit with one ex-staff member, Aaron Martinez, who worked for the firm as a quality assurance tester.

Martinez, who worked on several 2K Sports games at the California studio Visual Concepts, quit Take-Two in 2007 and waited three years before suing his former employee.

Documents filed in March 2010 allege that a number of QA testers at Visual Concepts – apparently as many as 400 – had not been paid their arranged overtime pay, had not been given designated lunch breaks, nor were paid for not taking them, and had been denied break periods.

Months later, Take-Two fired back with a comprehensive denial of Martinez’s allegations.

Martinez also claimed that he and colleagues had been paid below minimum wages – $8 in California – and were not given accurate wage statements. Filed documents accuse Take-Two of “wilfully and intentionally failing” to provide employees with accurate wage data.

The former QA tester claims to have regularly worked in excess of 8 hours a day, and often 12 hours a day – one of the few claims that Take-Two has not denied.

But the Rockstar Games owner says Martinez “fails to state facts and is unable to state facts”.

Take-Two has categorically said it had paid Martinez and his co-workers their overtime compensation, “at the legally required rate for hours worked in excess of 8 hours per day”.

A trial date is set for March 2012.