By Dexerto | Created at 2026-10-08 21:10:20 | Updated at 2026-10-09 01:11:14
8 hours ago
Australia’s workplace watchdog emblazoned an ultrasound screen with GTA 6 this week, all in the name of employment law.
The stunt arrived as the November 19 launch started swallowing calendars whole. A California car company announced they would pause operations for the day, and NBA star Steven Adams predicted sports leagues will “plummet” once players and coaches drop into Vice City.
Somebody had to break the bad news to everyone else.
Can you take unpaid leave to play GTA 6 in Australia?
The Fair Work Ombudsman, which enforces Australian workplace law, posted an Instagram carousel asking readers to pretend GTA 6 was coming out tomorrow and they had no paid leave left to play it on launch day. It then marched through every unpaid entitlement under the National Employment Standards and scratched each one off.
Unpaid carer’s leave covers a sick or injured family or household member. That didn’t stretch to a copy of GTA 6 tucked into bed with a hand hovering over it to check for a fever, and the Ombudsman admitted it didn’t think that one would apply.
Community service leave belongs to SES volunteers and other emergency helpers, so launch day didn’t count as a crisis either. Parental leave came closest, thanks to a GTA logo glowing on an ultrasound screen, but the regulator shut it down with the best line of the lot: “Though it’s been in the oven for a while, a video game isn’t a child.”
That left one door ajar, because the NES sets no minimum for general unpaid leave. As the Ombudsman’s own guidance explains, workers can ask for unpaid time off for reasons the law doesn’t list, but whether they get it rests entirely with the boss. That explains why the post’s caption nudged followers to get their leave requests in early.
The joke has teeth, since plenty of workers really are hoarding leave for the release of GTA 6. The Wall Street Journal reported that one software engineer had booked five days off around launch while a Brazilian civil servant set aside 10 days of vacation, a cutback from the 20 he spent on Red Dead Redemption 2.
A US Army battalion even reportedly dangled a four-day pass in front of soldiers who re-enlisted, so Australia’s regulator got its answer before requests started flooding in.
An actual baby would qualify, of course, and if you happened to time one for November 19, you might get a free copy, since one Norwegian retailer promised GTA 6 to anyone who gives birth on release day.
