California Promoted a State Worker Accused of Sexual Harassment Then He Got Sued Again

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Activision Blizzard has been sued by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing for sex activity discrimination in the workplace.

The visitor that makes games including World of Warcraft, Diablo, and Phone call of Duty is accused of having a "frat boy" culture in which female employees are subjected to harassment, diff pay, retaliation, and a failure to prevent harassment, the lawsuit said.

That's a sharp dissimilarity to how the company described itself in its contempo report on Ecology, Social, and Governance (ESG) commitments. In that report, Activision Blizzard said that, since 2016, there has been a two-times increase of women in game development leadership roles. And promotion rates for minorities and non-minorities are equal, and the promotion charge per unit for women is slightly higher than the rate for men. In a statement (included below), the visitor today said the allegations do non stand for the company of today, and it has taken actions to deal with past misconduct.

The lawsuit comes after a two-twelvemonth investigation by the state bureau. Information technology said the company discriminated against female person employees in weather condition of employment such equally bounty, assignment, promotion, and termination. The company leadership consistently failed to take steps to prevent bigotry, harassment, and retaliation, the agency said.

In a way, these kinds of allegations are familiar, as Riot Games, the maker of League of Legends and a neighbor of Activision Blizzard in Los Angeles, as well faced charges of sexual harassment against women and had to pay a $10 one thousand thousand settlement in 2019. French video game publisher Ubisoft also faced numerous #MeToo allegations about sexual harassment in the past year every bit well.

Above: Call of Duty: Warzone is 1 of Activision Blizzard's large games.

Paradigm Credit: Activision Blizzard

The complaint was filed Tuesday in the Los Angeles Superior Court. Women are 20% of the Activision workforce, and are subjected to a "pervasive frat boy workplace culture." That culture allegedly encouraged and tolerated sexual banter, jokes about rape, unwanted propositions, and other demeaning beliefs, the suit alleged.

The suit said a female Activision employee took her life while on a visitor trip with a male person supervisor. The employee was allegedly subjected to intense sexual harassment prior to her death, including having nude photos passed around at a company holiday party, the complaint said.

The agency asked for an injunction forcing compliance with workplace protections. It as well asked the company to pay unpaid wages, pay adjustments, provide dorsum pay, and lost wages and benefits for female employees.

As of December 31, 2020, Activision Blizzard had nine,630 employees, upwards from ix,234 a year earlier. Women are 24% of the overall employees, while underrepresented minorities are 34% of the overall base of operations. The visitor said in its own report it is trying to amend those ratios, but it'south not dissimilar from the overall game manufacture. The visitor has nine employee networks defended to becoming a more than inclusive company.

Here's the response from the company:

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

The DFEH includes distorted, and in many cases false, descriptions of Blizzard's past. Nosotros have been extremely cooperative with the DFEH throughout their investigation, including providing them with extensive data and ample documentation, but they refused to inform united states of america what issues they perceived. They were required by law to adequately investigate and to take practiced faith discussions with us to better understand and to resolve whatever claims or concerns before going to litigation, but they failed to do so. Instead, they rushed to file an inaccurate complaint, as nosotros 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 example and with no regard for her grieving family. While we find this behavior to exist disgraceful and unprofessional, it is unfortunately an example of how they take 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 Land'due south best businesses out of California.

The picture the DFEH paints is non the Blizzard workplace of today. Over the past several years and continuing since the initial investigation started, nosotros've made meaning changes to accost company culture and reflect more variety within our leadership teams. We've updated our Lawmaking 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 squad 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 back up. Employees must also undergo regular anti-harassment grooming and take done and so for many years.

Nosotros put tremendous effort in creating fair and rewarding compensation packages and policies that reflect our culture and business, and nosotros strive to pay all employees fairly for equal or essentially similar work. We take a diverseness 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 bounty 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. Information technology is a shame that the DFEH did non want to appoint with us on what they idea they were seeing in their investigation.

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Source: https://venturebeat.com/2021/07/21/activision-blizzard-sued-by-california-for-sex-discrimination/

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