In the wake of a massive sexual discrimination and harassment lawsuit directed toward Activision Blizzard, employees have called for a walkout tomorrow in protest of how the company has attempted to handle the situation.
Last week, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing filed a suit against Activision Blizzard following a two-year investigation into alleged sexual harassment and discrimination going on at the company. The internal and external response from Activision Blizzard to the lawsuit has been one of denial, calling the claims in the lawsuit “false and distorted.”
Nearly 1,000 Activision Blizzard employees have reportedly signed an open letter penned to the company’s management, denouncing the response to the lawsuit while voicing their displeasure with and their distrust of the company. Building on that letter, employees are now calling for a walkout on Wednesday, July 28 to protest the Activision Blizzard response and demand better conditions. This will reportedly take place outside the main Blizzard campus in Irvine, California.
Their list of demands, according to Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, includes:
- That Activision ditch mandatory arbitration clauses “in all employee contracts, current and future.”
- New practices for recruiting, interviewing, hiring and promotion that facilitate better representation “agreed upon by employees in a company-wide Diversity, Equity & Inclusion organization.”
- The publication of data on relative compensation, promotion rates and salary ranges for employees “of all genders and ethnicities at the company.”
- That a diversity task force be allowed to hire a third party to audit the company’s leadership, hierarchy and HR department. “It is imperative to identify how current systems have failed to prevent employee harassment, and to propose new solutions to address these issues.”
A representative for the Activision Blizzard employees walking out said they “have not discussed unionizing,” according to Schreier.
