Activision Blizzard Employees Strike in Harassment Lawsuit

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It seems that Activision Blizzard employees want to stir up management after last week’s explosive lawsuit over discrimination and harassment. For those unaware, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) has filed a lawsuit against Activision Blizzard, alleging widespread gender discrimination and sexual harassment at publisher Call of Duty and World of Warcraft. Activision Blizzard’s Official Response to the Suit accuses the DFEH of being “distorted” […] and false” descriptions and insists that the painted image “isn’t the Blizzard workplace of today.”

Since the DFEH’s allegations were made public, numerous current and former Activision Blizzard employees have stepped forward to share stories of assault. open letter issued the company’s official response to the “abhorrent and offensive” charge. The situation has now escalated further — at least 2,600 current and former Activision Blizzard employees have signed the open letter, and according to one report from Polygon, there are now plans for a workers’ strike tomorrow. Of course, due to the ongoing pandemic, many workers will participate at home without literally walking out. The hashtag #ActiBlizzWalkout is used to organize things online.

Strike organizers are demanding that Activision Blizzard improve working conditions, especially for women, by reviewing hiring policies, auditing executives and removing mandatory arbitration clauses from contracts. Here’s a list of what organizers require…

As current Activision Blizzard employees, we are holding a strike to call on the executive leadership team to work with us on the following demands, to improve conditions for employees in the company, especially women, and women of color in particular and transgender women, non-binary people and other marginalized groups.

  1. An end to mandatory arbitration clauses in all employee contracts, current and future. Arbitration clauses protect abusers and limit victims’ ability to seek restitution.
  2. Adopt recruitment, application, hiring and promotion policies to improve representation among employees at all levels agreed upon by employees in a company-wide Diversity, Equity & Inclusion organization. Current practices have resulted in women, especially women of color and transgender women, non-binary people and other marginalized groups vulnerable to gender discrimination, from being fairly recruited into new roles compared to men.
  3. Publication of data on relative pay (including stock exchanges and profit sharing), promotion rates and salary ranges for employees of all genders and ethnicities at the company. Current practices have resulted in the above groups not being paid or promoted fairly.
  4. Enable a company-wide Diversity, Equality and Inclusion Task Force to hire a third party to audit ABK’s reporting structure, HR department and executive staff. It is imperative to identify how current systems have failed to prevent employee harassment, and to propose new solutions to address these issues.

The chances of these demands being met are quite high, as employees of other major publishers such as Riot Games have staged similar strikes in recent years with few tangible results. Most of the video game industry, including Activision Blizzard, remains ununioned with employees who have limited opportunities to put pressure on management. That said, the backlash Activision Blizzard is currently facing is largely unprecedented and escalating by the day, so who knows? We’ll keep you posted as this story develops.

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