A federal court judge has approved Activision Blizzard’s $18 Million (13.63 million GBP) settlement of a sexual harassment lawsuit filed last year by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

Current and former employees going back as far as September 1st, 2016, can officially submit a claim about sexual harassment, retaliation or pregnancy discrimination, to be considered for relief. While the EEOC settlement as of today, is the second biggest of its kind the agency has ever agreed, it is not without its critics,including the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH).

Prior to US government’s Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filing a lawsuit last September , the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) sued Activision Bilzzard back in July last year. due to their failure to handle discrimination and sexual harassment against female employees.

The EEOC is a federal agency, whereas the DFEH is a state agency have been involved in a dispute over how much victims should receive from Activision Blizzard, with the latter being far more aggressive in its pursuit of compensation.

The DFEH fears it’s case, which is scheduled to go ahead in court February 2023 may be undermined by today’s settlement, which it had been attempting to delay. As first reported by The 

Washington Post, victims who are apart of the EEOC settlement can’t be apart of the DFEH’s lawsuit on the specific issues of harassment, retaliation or pregnancy discrimination.

Back in October, labour union the Communications Workers of America, which is representing a number of current and former Activision Blizzard employees, have called the previous proposed $18 million settlement “woefully inadequate”, being quoted that it would “provide the maximum settlement for only 60 workers” when many more may have been adversely affected.

The post Activision Blizzard to pay $18 million to settle its sexual harassment lawsuit. first appeared on Get2Gaming.

After being asked by a group of employees at activision blizzard whether it will object to internal Unionization efforts, Microsoft has responded saying that it will not.

The news comes from Axios, who say that, in response to an open letter, the company has said it will not object to the union efforts, which started during the wake of recent scandals surrounding activision blizzard.

In the letter, Workers asked Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella whether microsoft has authorized Activision to rule on the recognition of the union. Workers have also accused Activision for using “union-busting” tactics in an attempt to thwart their action, and have called on microsoft to stop the “campaign that is being waged against us”

Responding to the letter, a spokesperson from microsoft told Axios “Microsoft will not stand in the way if Activision Blizzard recognizes a union.” continuing on, they said “Microsoft respects Activision Blizzard employees’ right to choose whether to be represented by a labour organization and we will honor those decisions.”

A version of the letter is also slated to run in Microsoft's backyard this weekend in the Sunday edition of the Seattle Times pic.twitter.com/e1sHUSKFLY

— Stephen Totilo (@stephentotilo) March 24, 2022

Back in February, Activision’s vice president of QA, Christian Arends, Sent a message to staff in an attempt to dissuade them from unionizing.

In January, the 34 strong group called the game workers alliance officially asked activision blizzard to recognise the union, which would be the first one ever at a major north american Development studio.

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Doug Bowser joins Jim Ryan and Phil Spencer in condemning Activision Blizzard’s response to sexual harassment allegations

Last week, Wall Street Journal published an investigative report regarding Activision Blizzard‘s CEO Bobby Kotick and his actions, or inactions, to the sexual harassment allegations raised at the video game publisher and directly implicated Activision CEO Bobby Kotick in perpetuating sexual misconduct himself.

So far, Activision Blizzard employees have called for Kotick’s immediate resignation (he has yet to do so) and Sony and Xbox’s bosses Jim Ryan and Phil Spencer have also condemned the company’s response to the sexual harassment allegations. Now, Doug Bowser (yes, that is his last name), Nintendo of America’s President, has also raised his concerns.

Nintendo’s Response

Jim Ryan and Phil Spencer both sent out emails to their employees regarding their concerns about Activision’s response, and Fanbyte has now revealed that Nintendo’s Doug Bowser also did the same.

 

Along with all of you, I’ve been following the latest developments with Activision Blizzard and the ongoing reports of sexual harassment and toxicity at the company… I find these accounts distressing and disturbing. They run counter to my values as well as Nintendo’s beliefs, values and policies. – Doug Bowser, Nintendo of America President.

 

Bowser also goes on to explain that Nintendo is committed to having an open and inclusive workplace where all are welcome. He remarks the company holds itself to this standard and expects the same from the industry and its partners.

The email states how Nintendo’s representatives have been in touch with Activision and “have taken action, while accessing others”, yet it is not stated what action is being referred to here. Yet Bowser does go on to call on the Entertainment Software Association, a trade group that includes a number of video game publishers, to take a harder stance when it comes to dealing with sexual harassment allegations.

The sexual harassment allegations have been ongoing for quite some time now. The State of California filed a lawsuit against Activision Blizzard back in July after a two-year investigation into discriminatory behaviour towards female employees at the company. Activision Blizzard continued to receive lawsuits as later on in the year, ABK Alliance filed one under “unfair labour practices”.

Everyone is now looking at Activision Blizzard to clear up the company’s horrifyingly slow take of action.

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For you see, Simba, when we play online games, parents who don’t know  how they work will ask you to pause them. Then, the companies themselves pause their own events. And thus, we are all connected in the great circle of life.

I swear, these days, “cancel culture” may as well be renamed “pandemic culture” because that’s what happened with BlizzCon 2021 plans and almost every major release under the sun. An uncredited blog post on from Blizzard’s official website states “We’ve decided to take a step back and pause on planning the previously announced BlizzConline event scheduled for early next year”.

The company has been accused of proliferating a toxic work environment, especially regarding mistreatment and harassment of women and people of colour. This is likely the reason that many employees have recently started a walkout, and possibly as a response to the fact that Blizzard managed to settle out of court. There are some silver linings, such as claims that the company will be under strict watch with new guidelines to adhere to to make sure further atrocities don’t occur, but for more on that, click here. Even the company president J Allan Brack left the company after being named in the lawsuit as one of the perpetrators of sexual harassment. Unfortunately, the number of individuals arrested for workplace misconduct is (to my knowledge on the topic) still countable with the fingers on one hand, but at least the reports and protests have seemingly resulted in some guilty parties to leave their jobs.

Activision Blizzard has also announced plans to change the name of McCree from hit game Overwatch to Cole Cassidy, as the real-life employee based on his namesake left the company and was pictured at “the Cosby Suite”, which you can find out more on across two blogs here.

Blizzard has also stated that after 16 years, “we would also like to take the time to reimagine what a BlizzCon event of the future could look like”. I’ll be charitable and say this is about 40% honest truth, 20% out of preoccupation with the controversy’s backlash, 15% fantasies of going for pint and waiting for this to blow over and a hundred percent reason to remember the name.

Blizzard Roasting And More:

NEWSFLASH Blizzard, treating your employees like dirt isn’t exactly the smartest galaxy-brained move in the world! This isn’t like highschool where you can kick up your feet while the one smart kid does 90% of the group project, adulting means that it’s actually better to just say “screw you guys, I’m going home” and find someone better when your boss is being a massive ****! Unfortunately, not everyone has the financial stability to make the choice of leaving over having a bad job, which is why more needs to be done to reduce workplace inequalities from being so rampant. Demand better from your workplace because they can’t function without you, the workers, people who actually do all the work that makes it possible to bring games, tech or any products into the world. Know your worth.

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The post Blizzard to ‘Pause’ Plans for Online BlizzCon Event 2022 first appeared on Get2Gaming.

What’s going on?

In July the California state Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) Sued Activision blizzard over Sexual harassment, Discrimination and unfair working conditions. It was stated at the time that Activision Blizzard Promoted a “Frat-Boy culture” and that this led to targeted harassment of female members of staff.

A few months later, Activision Blizzard was also Sued by the  federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), however this was settled out of court at a cost of 18 million dollars the same day the news broke.

This resolution angered the DFEH, who filed an Expedited Intervention against the EEOC, with the claim that the EEOC’s settlement would hurt the DFEH’s case. The DFEH fired back claiming that 2 of the EEOC’s Lawyers had worked on the DFEH case which violated the California Rules of Professional Conduct.

The newest info.

While all this was going on, Activision Blizzard requested a pause on the DFEH lawsuit so that the conflict between the DFEH and the EEOC could be resolved. Both Activison Blizzard and the DFEH’s motions have been denied at this time.

Right now it should be noted that the Federal EEOC has the most power in this case, being of a higher level than the State DFEH. Beyond this, the settlement that the EEOC made has started to make changes at blizzard already, with name changes to certain characters and some major changes to names, assets and dialogue in world of warcraft. With this in mind, all the EEOC has to do in this case is to defend themselves.

However, the DFEH is able to grant a greater punishment if they are able to continue with their suit, as state level Can actually impose a harsher sentence on the Party being sued should they win.

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For some extra backstory on Activision Blizzard‘s lawsuit and recent controversies, feel free to have a gander over at some articles written by myself and others here at Go2Games linked at the end.

For now, it’s enough to know that multiple horrific occurrences of workplace mistreatment and discrimination to women and people of colour have been going on at the company and come to the public’s attention.

The first of these lawsuits in July was put forward by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing.

Today, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has officially ended its three-year investigation, ending with Activision receiving accusations of workplace inequality, verbal abuse, harassment, and wage gaps. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has demanded that Activision Blizzard compensate employees affected by the inequality with back pay and damages, as well as insurance that the company would ‘institute and carry out policies, practices, and programs to ensure equal employment opportunities, and which eradicate the effects of its past and present unlawful employment practices’.

Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard, has reached a settlement with the EEOC’s lawsuit and took part in a press release that outlined the promises and conditions of the conditions regarding the agreed settlement. Bobby Kotick has announced the inclusion of updated policies and training programs to combat sexual discrimination, as well as an ‘Equal Opportunity Expert’ who will interact with third-party consultants to make sure the company has sufficiently improved in accordance with the EEOC’s standards.

Activision has also promised an $18 million fund for the sake of compensating employees harmed by the misconduct, and to contribute to non-profit organizations who champion women in gaming and tech industries. I think they could spare a little more since the company’s net worth is $71.6 billion as of July 9, 2021 [Investopedia], but hey, I’m not an economist.

I’m glad Activision getting publicly dragged through the proverbial dirt has made a point of showing it is possible for victims of workplace abuse to speak up and be heard, though to my knowledge, only one known harasser has faced jail time, and that was from 2018 before the controversy became as mainstream as in 2021. Hopefully, other people who took part in the malpractice at Activision Blizzard will be identified and arrested sooner rather than later.

While the compensation will likely go a long way to improving the lives of others (and a little towards the company’s image), I believe Activision reaching a settlement deal is morally questionable at best. And at worst? An example of how having enough money means you can brush off the possibility of more severe punishments under the law. Admittedly, I have been going through a period of re-evaluating my self-proclaimed ‘Leftist’ tramp-stamp, but it is occurrences like this that remind me that in a system where money is the be-all-end-all of how badly someone faces punishment, then changes should definitely be made and advocated for to heavily reduce that as much as possible.

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For more info on Activision Blizzard click on the following article titles:

Over 1000 Employees Condemning Activision Blizzard’s Response to Allegations

Blizzard Will No Longer Name Characters After Real Employees

Activision Blizzard: 3 Senior Blizzard Employees Have Left the Company, Including Diablo 4 Director

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The post Activision Blizzard Settlement! Downsides and Silver Linings first appeared on Get2Gaming.