Activision Blizzard Sued By California Over Allegations of Sexual Harassment - News

by William D'Angelo , posted on 21 July 2021 / 2,692 Views

The California Department of Fair Employment and Housing has filed a lawsuit against Activision Blizzard over what is described as a "frat boy" culture at the video game giant. Female employees are subjected to constant sexual harassment, unequal pay, and retaliation, according to the lawsuit.

Activision Blizzard is being accused by the state of California of discriminating against female employees, who make up around 20 percent of the workforce at Activision Blizzard, as reported by Bloomberg.

California filed the lawsuit on Tuesday in the Los Angeles Superior Court after a two-year investigation. The lawsuit states leadership at Activision Blizzard has failed to address the issues of discrimination, harassment, and retaliation.

The female employees are subjected to "pervasive frat boy workplace culture," which includes "cube crawls." This is when employees "drink copious amounts of alcohol as they crawl their way through various cubicles in the office and often engage in inappropriate behavior toward female employees."

The lawsuit also says male employees instead of working will play video games during work hours, while delegating work to female employees, joke about rape, and more. Female employees have also allegedly been held back from promotions, because they might become pregnant, and have been criticized for leaving to pick up their children from daycare.

The lawsuit also cites where a female employee committed suicide during a work trip with a male supervisor. She had been subject sexual harassment before her death, which includes having nude photos passed around at a company holiday party.

The lawsuit from California is asking for an injunction that will force Activision Blizzard to comply with workplace protections. It will also pay compensatory damages, punitive damages, unpaid wages, injunctive relief, declaratory relief, equitable relief, pre-judgment interest, attorneys’ fees, and costs.

An Activision Blizzard spokesperson sent the following statement to IGN in regards to the allegations:

We value diversity and strive to foster a workplace that offers inclusivity for everyone. There is no place in our company or industry, or any industry, for sexual misconduct or harassment of any kind. We take every allegation seriously and investigate all claims. In cases related to misconduct, action was taken to address the issue.

The DFEH includes distorted, and in many cases false, descriptions of Blizzard’s past. We have been extremely cooperative with the DFEH throughout their investigation, including providing them with extensive data and ample documentation, but they refused to inform us what issues they perceived. They were required by law to adequately investigate and to have good faith discussions with us to better understand and to resolve any claims or concerns before going to litigation, but they failed to do so. Instead, they rushed to file an inaccurate complaint, as we will demonstrate in court. We are sickened by the reprehensible conduct of the DFEH to drag into the complaint the tragic suicide of an employee whose passing has no bearing whatsoever on this case and with no regard for her grieving family. While we find this behavior to be disgraceful and unprofessional, it is unfortunately an example of how they have conducted themselves throughout the course of their investigation. It is this type of irresponsible behavior from unaccountable State bureaucrats that are driving many of the State’s best businesses out of California.

The picture the DFEH paints is not the Blizzard workplace of today. Over the past several years and continuing since the initial investigation started, we’ve made significant changes to address company culture and reflect more diversity within our leadership teams. We’ve updated our Code of Conduct to emphasize a strict non-retaliation focus, amplified internal programs and channels for employees to report violations, including the “ASK List” with a confidential integrity hotline, and introduced an Employee Relations team dedicated to investigating employee concerns. We have strengthened our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion and combined our Employee Networks at a global level, to provide additional support. Employees must also undergo regular anti-harassment training and have done so for many years.

We put tremendous effort in creating fair and rewarding compensation packages and policies that reflect our culture and business, and we strive to pay all employees fairly for equal or substantially similar work. We take a variety of proactive steps to ensure that pay is driven by non-discriminatory factors. For example, we reward and compensate employees based on their performance, and we conduct extensive anti-discrimination trainings including for those who are part of the compensation process.

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 people, 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 were seeing in their investigation.

A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.