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Content Warning: The following article deals with sexual harassment, sexual abuse, and suicide.
The California Department of Fair Employment and Housing has filed a lawsuit against Activision Blizzard for “violations of state civil rights and equal pay laws” regarding its treatment of women.
The lawsuit is the result of a two-year state agency investigation of the studio, Bloomberg reported, and describes Activision Blizzard’s alleged “frat boy” culture, “fertile ground for harassment and discrimination against women “.
The lawsuit describes an atmosphere in which women must “continually reject unwanted sexual comments and advances from their male colleagues” and are “groped” into what the document describes as “cube explorations.”
“In the office, women are subjected to ‘cube crawls’ in which male employees drink copious amounts of alcohol as they ‘crawl’ around various cubicles in the office and often engage in inappropriate behavior towards female employees,” reads -on in the trial. “Male employees proudly arrive at work hungover, play video games for long periods of time on the job while delegating their responsibilities to female employees, make jokes about their sexual relationships, speak openly about the female body and joke about rape. “
The document goes on to explain the tragic consequences of this alleged constant sexual harassment, with an employee committing suicide “while on a business trip with a male supervisor who had brought butt plugs and lubricant with him.”
The DFEH reports that numerous complaints have been filed with HR and management, including J. Allen Brack of Blizzard Entertainment, to no avail.
“Employees were even more discouraged from complaining because human resources staff were known to be close to the alleged harassers,” the lawsuit said. “As a result of these complaints, female employees have faced reprisals, including, but not limited to, being denied work on projects, involuntarily transferred to different units and selected for layoffs. . “
The lawsuit also highlights a gender pay gap for all roles and seniority levels.
“These discriminatory practices began in hiring when women were offered lower pay and less lucrative assignments and work opportunities than their male counterparts,” the document said.
The pay gap went to the top positions, with HR Director Claudine Naughton having an annual salary of $ 655,000 in 2020 while, for example, President and COO Daniel Alegre had a salary of over a million dollars. The salary of Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick was criticized last year, with the executive recently suffering a 50% pay cut.
The lawsuit also says women at Activision Blizzard have to “work harder and longer” to get promotions and get the same opportunities as their male counterparts.
JeuxIndustrie.biz contacted Activision Blizzard for comment, with a spokesperson denying all accusations in the DFEH lawsuit and saying it was “not today’s Blizzard workplace.”
“The DFEH includes distorted, and in many cases false, descriptions of Blizzard’s past,” they said. “We were extremely cooperative with the DFEH throughout their investigation, including providing them with detailed data and extensive documentation, but they refused to inform us of any issues they perceived. They were required by law to adequately investigate and have good faith discussions with us to better understand and resolve any claims or concerns before going to court, but they did not. “
They went on to say that the “inaccurate” complaint was “rushed” and condemned “the reprehensible behavior of the DFEH to result in the complaint the tragic suicide of an employee whose death has no bearing on this matter”.
They added that Activision Blizzard “fosters a workplace that offers inclusiveness for everyone” and that significant changes have been made to meet Activision Blizzard’s corporate culture in recent years and “reflect more diversity within our management teams “. The company’s management team can be seen on this page.
Measures taken by the company to foster a healthy corporate culture include an updated code of conduct to “emphasize a strict goal of non-retaliation”, internal channels for reporting violations, a confidential hotline integrity and the creation of an employee relations team, the spokesperson listed. All Activision Blizzard employees must also complete regular anti-harassment training.
“We are confident in our ability to demonstrate our practices as an equal opportunity employer that fosters a supportive, diverse and inclusive workplace for our employees, and we are committed to continuing this effort in the years to come. . It is a shame that the DFEH did not want to engage with us on what they thought they saw in their investigation. “
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