Microsoft’s First U.S. Union Contract Reached: ZeniMax QA Team Gets 13.5% Salary Raise Starting July

IT Home reported on June 2 that Microsoft made progress in the negotiation of its first union contract in the United States, and the unionized quality assurance (QA) testing team of ZeniMax, a video game holding company, announced last Friday that it had reached a temporary contract agreement with Microsoft. Microsoft acquired ZeniMax in 2021 for $8.1 billion (about 58.325 billion yuan at the current exchange rate).

Microsoft’s First U.S. Union Contract Reached: ZeniMax QA Team Gets 13.5% Salary Raise Starting July
Microsoft’s First U.S. Union Contract Reached: ZeniMax QA Team Gets 13.5% Salary Raise Starting July
The contract negotiations began in 2023 when about 300 QA testers announced a union through the Communications Workers Association (CWA) and have been in ongoing negotiations with Microsoft ever since. According to a report by Bloomberg, the new contract terms include a 13.5% salary increase across the board for all QA testers starting July 1. In addition, the contract incorporates previously announced agreements on the use of AI.

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Union members are scheduled to vote on the contract on June 20. Page Branson, ZeniMax’s QA tester and a member of the union’s bargaining committee, said in a statement that the outcome was “a huge win for all current video game practitioners as well as those of the future.”

It’s worth noting that ZeniMax’s QA team was the first team under Microsoft’s umbrella to form a union, but other teams have since followed suit. According to the Communications Workers Association, more than 2,000 Microsoft video game practitioners have joined the union.