Activision Blizzard, Inc. is an American video game. It employs 9,500 people, is a member of the Fortune 500 and S&P 500. last July, it was sued by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing on allegations of sexual harassment and employment discrimination. Now, a female employee of the company filed another lawsuit; more allegations regarding the company’s “frat boy” culture that encouragement of sexual harassment and discrimination.
Lawsuit Against Activision Blizzard
Attorney Lisa Bloom filed the suit in the Los Angeles County Superior Court on behalf of a current employee (Jane Doe) Bloomberg Law reports.
“For years, Activision Blizzard’s open ‘frat boy’ environment fostered rampant sexism, harassment, and discrimination with 700 reported incidents occurring under CEO Robert Kotick’s watch,” the lawsuit says.
Doe joined Activision Blizzard in 2017 as a senior administrative assistant in the IT department. Since then, she was persistently facing problems like discrimination and passing off comments on women. She also added that the female employees were forced to participate in ‘cube crawls’.
Women employees are less paid than men. Moreover, men with less experience get promotions to the upper level and women are denied promotions. The male employees also regularly joke about their sex lives, make inappropriate sexual advances. They delegate their work to female subordinates while they play video games.
After complaining directly to ex-Blizzard president J. Allen Brack to change her department, she received a demotion and a significant salary decrease.
The lawsuit demands Activision Blizzard to implement a rotating human resources department and remove CEO Bobby Kotick. Because he was aware of many harassment incidents and purposefully covered them up.
Activision’s Response
Activision Blizzard didn’t make any response immediately. But released a statement on Wednesday describing the agency’s allegations as both inaccurate and more representative of the company’s past.
“The Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) includes distorted, and in many cases false, descriptions of Blizzard’s past,” the statement reads.
“They were required by law to adequately investigate and to have good faith discussions with us to better understand and to resolve any claims or concerns before going to litigation, but they failed to do so.”
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