Following the lawsuit against Activision Blizzard for sexual harassment and discrimination by the state of California, employees are now also going to the barricades. A protest rally is planned for today.
The lawsuit against Activision Blizzard continues to circulate, because now the employees are increasingly on the barricades. After a petition in response to the inconsiderate statements and internal emails from the management, in which over 2,000 employees have now participated, another protest follows.
Employees of the company want to protest today on the Blizzard campus in Irvine against the leadership of Activision Blizzard and at the same time support the employees who have suffered from bullying and harassment.
The protest is accompanied by a list of demands to be made to management. Among other things, clauses in the employment contracts are to be revised, which limit the possibilities of compensation for victims of abuse. There is also a call for the recruitment and promotion criteria to be improved in order to achieve more equality for women, transgender people and other groups that could be victims of discrimination.
In addition, an outside organization should scrutinize management, HR, and reporting structure to determine why the current systems failed to protect employees. Furthermore, a disclosure of salary structures for employees from all genders and ethnicities is required, since certain groups are said to have been disadvantaged here as well.
The pressure on the management level of Activision Blizzard is growing, especially since the management will certainly be more cautious in view of the ongoing lawsuit. Activision boss Bobby Kotick has now at least expressed himself with an open letter and confirmed that the previous statements of the Activision Blizzard leadership have not hit the right note.
Kotick makes it clear that they want to take care of the problems intensively in order to ensure a safe working environment for everyone. The law firm WilmerHale has already been commissioned as an external consultant to scrutinize and improve guidelines and processes. The external law firm should also serve as a point of contact for affected employees.
Furthermore, all allegations of the employees are to be investigated, the corresponding areas are increased in terms of personnel. The management personnel in all areas are closely examined, personnel changes are not ruled out. So something is slowly getting started and that is a good thing, because it is foreseeable that the lawsuit by the State of California will, as in previous cases, end with a settlement that will cost Activision Blizzard a lot of money, but little effect . That You can read the full statement by Bobby Kotick here.
