Activision Blizzard to Pay Over $50 Million to Settle Discrimination Case - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 01 January 2024 / 4,533 Views
Activision Blizzard has entered into an agreement with the California Civil Rights Department (CRD) to settle a case related to unequal compensation and promotion practices on the basis of sex from 2015 to 2020, according to The Wall Street Journal (via GamesBeat).
The publisher will pay as much as $46.75 million to pay women employees who say they received inequitable pay, while another $9.125 million will be paid to cover attorney's fees.
The California CRD agrees that "no court or any independent investigation has substantiated any allegations" about "systemic or widespread sexual harassment at Activision Blizzard," nor "that Activision Blizzard senior executives ignored, condoned or tolerated a culture of systemic, harassment, retaliation or discrimination."
The settlement also states the investigation found no evidence of wrongdoing by Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick or its board. Experts in California who testified said a gender pay gap existed overall, but pay disparity was not found among employees of the same rank.
"We are gratified that we have reached an agreement with the California Civil Rights Department (CRD) today, as the CRD has now announced in a press statement," said Activision Blizzard in a statement.
"We appreciate the importance of the issues addressed in this agreement and we are dedicated to fully implementing all the new obligations we have assumed as part of it. We want our employees to know that, as the agreement specifies, we are committed to ensuring fair compensation and promotion policies and practices for all our employees, and we will continue our efforts regarding inclusion of qualified candidates from underrepresented communities in outreach, recruitment, and retention.
"We are also gratified that the CRD has agreed to file an amended complaint that entirely withdraws its 2021 claims alleging widespread and systemic workplace harassment at Activision Blizzard. As the CRD acknowledged explicitly in the agreement, 'CRD is filing along with a Proposed Consent Decree a Second Amended Complaint that withdraws, among other allegations and causes of action, the Fifth Cause of Action – 'Employment Discrimination – Because of Sex – Harassment.' As the CRD also expressly acknowledged in the agreement, 'no court or independent investigation has substantiated any allegations that there has been systemic or widespread sexual harassment at Activision Blizzard.'
"In addition, the CRD has acknowledged that no court or independent investigation substantiated any allegations that 'Activision Blizzard’s Board of Directors, including its Chief Executive Officer, Robert Kotick, acted improperly with regard to the handling of any instances of workplace misconduct.'"
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 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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Positive outcome. Discrimination is not okay.
Hopefully Microsoft can turn some of that ship around.
Disgusting company. No wonder they publish COD.
how many people does this go to?
1,500 plus women. Averages about 31,000 paid out to each.
good to know!
A small amount considering. $50mil sounds a lot in one lump but not when it's divided by so many people, when the minimum wage in Cali (ABK's head office location) is 60k+ a year and they just got bought for $70bil, 1400 times more than that amount. Bobby Kotick alone made $400million from the sale apparently.
9 million to the lawyers is the real crime here...we'll the discrimination was the crime here but also the the greedy lawyers.
16.3% is less than the usual 33% they normally charge. That is less greedy than normal.
So no actual discrimination was found, and they still had to pay out? Huh? Or am I misreading this?
End it so the world can move on.
i agree, fresh start with Microsoft
