Last week a harrowing lawsuit was filed with Activision Blizzard accused of allowing a “frat boy” culture to flourish under management’s watch.
Since the filing of that lawsuit, several former employees have detailed their experiences while working for Activision Blizzard and things have escalated to a point where employees at the firm have organised a walk-out set to take place today.
The reason for the walk-out, according to a report from The Verge, is how Activision Blizzard addressed the allegations in the lawsuit.
That response was, well it was terribly worded for one but it spent far too long attacking the Department of Fair Employment and Housing in California and not much at all acknowledging what it was accused of.
As it turns out, we weren’t the only ones to think that as Activision Blizzard chief executive officer, Bobby Kotick, has published a statement.
The CEO called the company’s response to the lawsuit “tone deaf”.
“It is imperative that we acknowledge all perspectives and experiences and respect the feelings of those who have been mistreated in any way. I am sorry that we did not provide the right empathy and understanding,” wrote Kotick. You can read his full statement here.
Employees aren’t just staging a walkout today they have issued demands that they hope will improve the workplace for all employees “especially women, and in particular women of color and transgender women, nonbinary people, and other marginalized groups”, reads a letter sent by staff to Activision Blizzard.
According to a Kotaku report the employees are also demanding:
“1. An end to mandatory arbitration clauses in all employee contracts, current and future. Arbitration clauses protect abusers and limit the ability of victims to seek restitution.
2. The adoption of recruiting, interviewing, hiring, and promotion policies designed to improve representation among employees at all levels, agreed upon by employees in a company-wide Diversity, Equity & Inclusion organization. Current practices have led to women, in particular women of color and transgender women, nonbinary people, and other marginalized groups that are vulnerable to gender discrimination not being hired fairly for new roles when compared to men.
3. Publication of data on relative compensation (including equity grants and profit sharing), promotion rates, and salary ranges for employees of all genders and ethnicities at the company. Current practices have led to aforementioned groups not being paid or promoted fairly.
4. Empower a company-wide Diversity, Equity, & 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.”
Meanwhile Kotick has said that Activision Blizzard will hire law firm WilmerHale to conduct a review of the firm’s policies and procedures “to ensure that we have and maintain best practices to promote a respectful and inclusive workplace.”
While there is hope that the walkout, demands and changes outlined will have a noticeable effect on Activision Blizzard’s workplace, the real test will come when or rather if the lawsuit the firm is named in goes to court.
The matter could be settled out of court – and given the history of these sorts of matters that’s where we thing this might be headed – but we’d love to see Activision Blizzard account for the disturbing allegations made by the Department of Fair Employment and Housing in California.
