An update to the ongoing lawsuit against Activision Blizzard

Current employees from all across Activision Blizzard and all of its subsidiaries have signed an open letter to the company’s management after its response to the State of California Lawsuit against them.

If you missed this story, please read the first article about it here.

Employees Take Action Against Activision Blizzard

In the days that followed the lawsuit being filed against Activision Blizzard, many leaders gave their own responses to the allegations. Some, like the Blizzard president J. Allen Brack, called it “extremely troublesome” (when he is mentioned by the DFEH for not addressing those complaints that were already reported to him), while others, such as Chief Compliance Officer Frances Townsend, called the lawsuit “meritless”. This lead to a number of developers distancing themselves and speaking out against the company for how they were handling the situation.

Activision Blizzard executive Fran Townsend, who was the Homeland Security Advisor to George W. Bush from 2004-2007 and joined Activision in March, sent out a very different kind of email that has some Blizzard employees fuming. pic.twitter.com/BxGeMTuRYF

— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) July 23, 2021

Over 1,000 employees from Activision Blizzard took it upon themselves to draft a letter to their leadership and is continuously gathering more and more signatures from their organisations in support of holding the company accountable for its actions.

The full letter was shared with gaming website Kotaku:

To the Leaders of Activision Blizzard,

We, the undersigned, agree that the statements from Activision Blizzard, Inc. and their legal counsel regarding the DFEH lawsuit, as well as the subsequent internal statement from Frances Townsend, are abhorrent and insulting to all that we believe our company should stand for. To put it clearly and unequivocally, our values as employees are not accurately reflected in the words and actions of our leadership.

We believe these statements have damaged our ongoing quest for equality inside and outside of our industry. Categorizing the claims that have been made as “distorted, and in many cases false” creates a company atmosphere that disbelieves victims. It also casts doubt on our organizations’ ability to hold abusers accountable for their actions and foster a safe environment for victims to come forward in the future. These statements make it clear that our leadership is not putting our values first. Immediate corrections are needed from the highest level of our organization.

Our company executives have claimed that actions will be taken to protect us, but in the face of legal action — and the troubling official responses that followed — we no longer trust that our leaders will place employee safety above their own interests. To claim this is a “truly meritless and irresponsible lawsuit,” while seeing so many current and former employees speak out about their own experiences regarding harassment and abuse, is simply unacceptable.

We call for official statements that recognize the seriousness of these allegations and demonstrate compassion for victims of harassment and assault. We call on Frances Townsend to stand by her word to step down as Executive Sponsor of the ABK Employee Women’s Network as a result of the damaging nature of her statement. We call on the executive leadership team to work with us on new and meaningful efforts that ensure employees — as well as our community — have a safe place to speak out and come forward.

We stand with all our friends, teammates, and colleagues, as well as the members of our dedicated community, who have experienced mistreatment or harassment of any kind. We will not be silenced, we will not stand aside, and we will not give up until the company we love is a workplace we can all feel proud to be a part of again. We will be the change.

Many fans have threatened to boycott the company by uninstalling their games or no longer supporting their latest projects. Hopefully, there will be more of an update soon and Activision Blizzard can hold accountability for themselves.

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The post Over 1,000 Employees Are Condemning Activison Blizzard’s Response to Allegations first appeared on Get2Gaming.

This article deals with heavy topics such as racism, sexual harassment, rape, and suicide so please be advised.

On July 20, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) filed a lawsuit against Activision Blizzard after a two-year investigation into discriminatory behaviour towards female employees at the company.

Within it, lists unequal treatment in regards to compensation, assignments, promotions, and terminations, and alleges that leadership has failed to take the necessary steps to prevent discrimination in the workplace.

The Claims Against Activision Blizzard

Women are said to make up 20% of the workplace at Activision Blizzard and are allegedly subjected to “frat-boy culture” from male employees. Male employees spend their time video games and delegate their work to the female staff, get drunk during office hours and “cube crawl”, moving from cubicle to cubicle, and behaving inappropriately towards women.

The lawsuit also claims that male employees will often joke about rape openly in front of female employees and the World of Warcraft team claimed male employees and supervisors would consistently hit on them and act degradingly.

Women of colour were particularly vulnerable targets. The lawsuit states that an African American woman noted it took her two years to get a permanent position at the company while male employees became permanent in a shorter space of time. She also claimed that she was being micromanaged by her supervisor when her other co-workers would be left alone, aware they were playing games instead of working. Other African American women also claimed this and would not be given time off work, only “when no one else had to do any write-up”.

The lawsuit also cites the example of a female employee who took her own life during a company trip with a male supervisor, after an intense case of sexual harassment in the workplace which included nude photos of her being spread around at a company party. Furthermore, female employees have stated they denied promotions in fear of the possibility of becoming pregnant, due to the fact women are criticised at Activision Blizzard for requiring to leave work early to pick up their children from daycare and have even been kicked out of designated lactation rooms so it could be used for meetings.

The DFEH lawsuit demands compensatory and punitive damages, unpaid wages, injunctive relief, declaratory relief, equitable relief, pre-judgment interest, and attorneys’ fees.

The California Department of Fair Employment and Housing has filed an explosive lawsuit against Activision Blizzard for discrimination. Some of the details in the complaint are horrifying https://t.co/rKF3HlaEaY pic.twitter.com/dRuP8HPyqe

— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) July 22, 2021

Since the news went public, a spokesperson at Activision Blizzard contacted Jason Schreier (Bloomberg), claiming the reports are distorted and in many cases false, yet Schreier tweeted he has heard several stories about sexism shown at Activision Blizzard over the years, showing many are not believing Activision Blizzard’s response to the lawsuit.

After last year’s misconduct reports from Ubisoft, it’s clear to see the gaming industry is far from gender equality and this story will have a massive impact on the community and hopefully, we can start making immediate changes for the better.

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The post State of California Files Lawsuit Against Activision Blizzard first appeared on Get2Gaming.