Nearly 500 employees at Ubisoft signed a letter today standing in solidarity with workers of Activision Blizzard in their walkout and criticizing their own senior leadership for how they’ve addressed allegations of sexual abuse, according to a report from Axios.
The letter openly addresses the walkout organized by current and former Activision Blizzard employees, who are protesting the way that company has handled sexual abuse and gender discrimination allegations over the past two weeks stemming from a lawsuit filed by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing. In the letter, Ubisoft employees said “we believe you, we stand with you, and support you.”
The letter contains a proposition that Ubisoft and Activision Blizzard workers band together to standardize rules and processes for handling allegations of sexual misconduct and harassment moving forward.
Ubisoft has been embroiled in a deluge of accusations of sexual harassment that were also swept under the rug by HR, according to report from Kotaku in August 2020. Chief creative officer Serge Hascoët and global head of human resources Cécile Cornet resigned from their roles after the initial wave of allegations were put forward. But the signees of the letter aren’t satisfied and allege that in some cases, those who committed these acts were promoted.
“We have stood by and watched as you fired only the most public offenders,” the letter reads, according to Axios. “You let the rest either resign or worse, promoted them, moved them from studio to studio, team to team, giving them second chance after second chance with no repercussions. This cycle needs to stop.”
In a public report filed earlier in July, Ubisoft admits that the company is at “high” risk to lose or not be able to attract talented employees due to the movement to denounce behavior deemed as harassing, toxic, and sexist. Ubisoft disclosed that it’s expanded the scope of an in-house whistleblowing tool. But a report in Le Telegramme from May indicates that employees feel that nothing, if anything, has really changed.
