The lawsuit filed by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) against Activision Blizzard has taken a worrying turn.
An updated complaint filed by the governmental organisation alleges that Activision Blizzard is suppressing evidence and intefering with its investigation.
These allegations are outlined in an updated lawsuit which still contains the allegations made previously. You can view the updates here thanks to The Verge.
In this update, the DFEH alleges that by asking employees to engage with law firm WilmerHale as regards any workplace policy violations, it has made those engagements confidential and as such, the DFEH can’t access those statements. While this is a scummy move, we have to admire how clever it is to hire an attorney so that any interactions with them can be classed as confidential.
Of course, the DFEH is none to pleased with Activision Blizzard’s antics.
“This directly interferes with DFEH’s statutory mandate to investigate, prosecute, and remedy workplace discrimination and harassment violations on behalf of employees and contingent or temporary workers who engaged in, or were perceived to be engaged in, protective activity,” reads the updated lawsuit.
Things get worse though as you read through the update.
The DFEH further accuses Activision Blizzard of trying to effectively silence employees by trying to convince employees to sign a waiver which would prevent them from revealing any incidents outlined in the waiver before consulting with the firm.
“Defendants’ waivers and releases that overtly interfere with the DFEH’s statutory mandate to investigate and remedy discrimination by imposing conditions to and constraints against their employees’ ability to notify DFEH of ‘information about unlawful conduct in the workplace’ is ‘contrary to public policy and shall be unenforceable,’ as set forth in Government Code sections 12964.5 and 12953,” the lawsuit states.
While Activision Blizzard has said that it will co-operate with the investigation and try to change the culture at the company, this lawsuit paints a very different picture and it seems as if Activision Blizzard wants this affair to go away as quickly as possible.
If the DFEH’s allegations hold water though, Activision Blizzard could be in a lot more trouble than it was previously.
