Nintendo of America and an IT contracting firm called Teksystems have been hit with a labor complaint alleging that the two companies have violated a pair of clauses of the National Labor Relations Act. The two companies are accused of interfering with union organization activities, and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) will have to decide what happens next.
The complaint was filed on January 6, 2026, as Game File (paid article link) reports. It alleges that Nintendo and Teksystems have violated clauses 8(a)(1) and 8(a)(4) of the National Labor Relations Act, which established the NLRB as a federal agency and has governed trade unions in the US since 1935.
8(a)(1) makes it an "unfair labor practice" for an employer to "interfere with, restrain, or coerce employees in the exercise" of their rights to organize, and 8(a)(4) similarly prohibits an employer's ability to "to discharge or otherwise discriminate against an employee because he has filed charges or given testimony under this Act."
Another filing, made on December 9, 2025, makes additional allegations that Teksystems violated both these clauses. Signed charges against the employers for both filings were dated on January 7. No details on the specifics of the allegations are currently available, but Game File reports that this is standard for online descriptions of labor complaints. Neither Nintendo nor Teksystems have issued a statement on the filings.
A similar filing occurred in 2022, when Nintendo and staffing firm Aston Carter were similarly accused of violating 8(a)(1) as well as 8(a)(3), which prevents an employer from firing a worker due to union activity. At the time, Nintendo said the employee in question was a contractor "terminated for the disclosure of confidential information and for no other reason."
That employee was later identified as game tester MacKenzie Clifton, who alleged to Axios that they were fired after asking Nintendo of America's then-president his thoughts on unions. They added their belief that the "confidential information" Nintendo referred to was a tweet joking about game textures having accidentally been deleted.
Aston Carter eventually paid Clifton $25,910 in damages and back pay as part of a settlement, as Polygon reported in 2022, with Nintendo forced to post an in-office notice informing employees of their rights under the National Labor Relations Act.
