Activision Blizzard Employees Staged A Walkout Today Over The Companies Response To Lawsuit

Employ­ees at Activi­sion Bliz­zard have said they won’t work on today out of protest for the pub­lish­er’s “abhor­rent and insult­ing” response to the ongo­ing law­suit that doc­u­ments claims of sex­u­al harass­ment of women, pay vio­la­tions, and a “frat boy” cul­ture.

“We believe that that our val­ues as employ­ees are not being accu­rate­ly reflect­ed in the words and actions of our lead­er­ship,” protest orga­niz­ers stat­ed to Poly­gon.

The employ­ee group is demand­ing that exec­u­tives at Activi­sion Bliz­zard “improve con­di­tions for employ­ees at the com­pa­ny, espe­cial­ly women, and in par­tic­u­lar women of col­or and trans­gen­der women, non­bi­na­ry peo­ple, and oth­er mar­gin­al­ized groups.”

The walk­out comes after more than 2,000 cur­rent and for­mer employ­ees from Activi­sion Bliz­zard signed an open let­ter to man­age­ment regard­ing the law­suit from Cal­i­for­nia. Activi­sion is report­ed to employ more than 9,000 peo­ple across all its offices worldwide.

The employ­ee group stag­ing the walk­out have a list of demands include an end to manda­to­ry arbi­tra­tion claus­es; new recruit­ing, inter­view­ing, hir­ing, and pro­mo­tion poli­cies that improve rep­re­sen­ta­tion; and a call to make com­pen­sa­tion for employ­ees. The group also wants to see Activi­sion Bliz­zard hire a third-par­ty to audit the com­pa­ny’s efforts in the Diver­si­ty, Equi­ty, and Inclu­sion task force.

For Bliz­zard specif­i­cal­ly, employ­ees par­tic­i­pat­ing in the walk­out will gath­er at the com­pa­ny’s main gate in Irvine, Cal­i­for­nia. They won’t actu­al­ly enter the cam­pus due to COVID. Those work­ing from home are going to use the #ActiB­lizz­Walk­out hash­tag to participate.

Activi­sion Bliz­zard respond­ed to the law­suit by say­ing the claims are “dis­tort­ed, and in many cas­es false” descrip­tions of past behav­ior. They also stat­ed they’ve tak­en steps to cor­rect the issues.

Activision Blizzard Walkout Statement:

“Giv­en last week’s state­ments from Activi­sion Bliz­zard, Inc. and their legal coun­sel regard­ing the DFEH law­suit, as well as the sub­se­quent inter­nal state­ment from Frances Townsend, and the many sto­ries shared by cur­rent and for­mer employ­ees of Activi­sion Bliz­zard since, we believe that our val­ues as employ­ees are not being accu­rate­ly reflect­ed in the words and actions of our leadership.

As cur­rent Activi­sion Bliz­zard employ­ees, we are hold­ing a walk­out to call on the exec­u­tive lead­er­ship team to work with us on the fol­low­ing demands, in order to improve con­di­tions for employ­ees at the com­pa­ny, espe­cial­ly women, and in par­tic­u­lar women of col­or and trans­gen­der women, non­bi­na­ry peo­ple, and oth­er mar­gin­al­ized groups.

1. An end to manda­to­ry arbi­tra­tion claus­es in all employ­ee con­tracts, cur­rent and future. Arbi­tra­tion claus­es pro­tect abusers and lim­it the abil­i­ty of vic­tims to seek restitution.

2. The adop­tion of recruit­ing, inter­view­ing, hir­ing, and pro­mo­tion poli­cies designed to improve rep­re­sen­ta­tion among employ­ees at all lev­els, agreed upon by employ­ees in a com­pa­ny-wide Diver­si­ty, Equi­ty & Inclu­sion orga­ni­za­tion. Cur­rent prac­tices have led to women, in par­tic­u­lar women of col­or and trans­gen­der women, non­bi­na­ry peo­ple, and oth­er mar­gin­al­ized groups that are vul­ner­a­ble to gen­der dis­crim­i­na­tion not being hired fair­ly for new roles when com­pared to men.

3. Pub­li­ca­tion of data on rel­a­tive com­pen­sa­tion (includ­ing equi­ty grants and prof­it shar­ing), pro­mo­tion rates, and salary ranges for employ­ees of all gen­ders and eth­nic­i­ties at the com­pa­ny. Cur­rent prac­tices have led to afore­men­tioned groups not being paid or pro­mot­ed fairly.

4. Empow­er a com­pa­ny-wide Diver­si­ty, Equi­ty, & Inclu­sion task force to hire a third par­ty to audit ABK’s report­ing struc­ture, HR depart­ment, and exec­u­tive staff. It is imper­a­tive to iden­ti­fy how cur­rent sys­tems have failed to pre­vent employ­ee harass­ment, and to pro­pose new solu­tions to address these issues.”