Galaxy Racer lays off North American staff amid reports of owing multiple months of salary
Galaxy RacerGalaxy Racer has allegedly laid off its entire North American staff amid reports that it owes the staff three months salary.
Galaxy Racer reportedly laid off multiple staff members of its North American office and offshoot Her Galaxy, which is a company focusing on facilitating tournament competition in the region specifically for women.
The Esports Advocate reported in July that the company owed employees weeks worth of back pay and also laid off multiple women from the company.
Galaxy Racer said at the time that the terminations were on the talent and sales side of the business and that the employees owed payment would be paid by the next week.
Galaxy Racer issue statement on layoffs
On November 30, 10 full-time employees of Her Galaxy and the North American office were laid off, according to the staffers on social media and TEA.
According to a follow-up report on the situation, Galaxy Racer owes months in back pay to the impacted employees. Those employees have reportedly threatened to sue the company and have sent a legal letter to Galaxy Racer over the issue.
One employee said that during the meeting announcing the layoffs, staff emails were disabled and employees were kicked from the call.
Another former staffer confirmed the reports that they were owed months of back pay and warned others about working with them.
“Stay away from their creator scam! They have no staff, no budgets, no plan forward. They owe vendors, talent & tournament winners,” former Her Galaxy Esports Manager Bethany Pyles said on social media.
The company has since issued an update about Her Galaxy and said it is going through a “strategic shift” and is “restructuring” its business to focus on influencer and content creator programs.
An anonymous tipster alerted multiple esports reporters and publications about the situation at Her Galaxy in July (including Dexerto). The person claims the company also owes its employees three months of health care in its most recent email blast.
The company has responded to the tipster’s email saying that they do not and have not “been part of Galaxy Racer for a while now, as all payments to all employees have been settled in full prior to any layoffs.”
One former employee has confirmed that Galaxy Racer eventually paid everyone what they were owed after initially only paying two months’ worth of back pay, and withholding the final month until they signed a termination agreement.