New lawsuit, more relief, employee letter against Activision Blizzard and Bobby Kotick warns: “people will be held accountable for their actions”
Key day yesterday at Activision Blizzard . The call with the investors on the part of the board of the company was conditioned by the abandonment, hours before, of J. Allen Brack as president of Blizzard . Although the main motivation pointed to the “search for new opportunities” , everything indicates that it is one of the first chips on the board to fall after the lawsuit by the state of California against the company.
The disclosure of cases of abuse and harassment against female employees has sparked a wave of responses from the workforce, with an open letter that has been signed by more than 2,000 workers . The arrival of a strike, both face-to-face and virtual, increased tension with the brand led by Bobby Kotick , who made statements regarding what happened .
Now, there are several focuses of attention for Activision Blizzard. First of all, we have a new series of statements by the person in charge at the beginning of his intervention in the call with investors. Here’s what Kotick has to say, according to GamesIndustry.biz :
“I want to start by making it clear to everyone that there is no place in our company where discrimination, harassment or unequal treatment of any kind will be tolerated. Nowhere. We greatly appreciate current and former employees who have courageously come forward. in the past and recent days, and I want to reiterate the commitments we have made with you. “
Kotick went on to point out that Activision Blizzard “has already taken many steps” , as well as insisting that “each and every claim we receive” will be investigated and that “we will take decisive action” when necessary.
“People will be held accountable for their actions. That commitment means that we will not only fire employees when appropriate, but we will also fire any manager or leader who has impeded the integrity of our processes to assess claims and impose appropriate consequences.
You have my unwavering commitment that we will continue to focus on serving our players and delivering the sustainable growth they expect, and we will take all necessary actions to foster a culture that is supportive and welcoming to all of our employees. And we hope to be the best example for other companies to follow. “
He affirmed that the company is in a process of hiring personnel to help in this process, although Daniel Alegre, president and director of operations, clarified that said hiring will be focused on the employee relations and compliance teams .
Kotick also added that Activision Blizzard is committed to creating a diverse list of candidates for open positions, considering fair and equitable wages and work environments “conducive to reporting any type of misconduct.”
The public financial results contain a statement of institutional nature, in which it is ensured that all these problems are being addressed and the business group is reaffirmed in its commitment:
“Commitment to a safe work environment
Following serious allegations about the company’s employment, compensation and labor practices, Activision Blizzard is taking swift action to ensure a safe and welcoming work environment for all employees. We have engaged a law firm to conduct a review of our policies and procedures to ensure that we have and maintain best practices to promote a respectful and inclusive workplace. We will add additional staff to our Compliance and Employee Relations Teams, strengthening our capabilities to investigate employee concerns.
We are creating safe spaces, moderated by third parties, for employees to express themselves and share areas for improvement. We will evaluate company managers and leaders regarding their compliance with our complaint evaluation and imposition of appropriate consequences. And we will continue to add resources to secure and improve our consideration of diverse candidate lists for all open positions. The leadership of the company is committed to creating the most welcoming, comfortable and safe culture possible. “
Finally, Activision Blizzard itself recognizes that the lawsuit filed may have a negative effect on financial results .
“If we experience prolonged periods of adverse publicity, significantly reduced productivity or other negative consequences related to this matter, our business would likely be adversely affected. We are carefully monitoring all aspects of our business for such impacts.”
Croc, the crocodile who wanted to be Yoshi and to whom we indirectly owe Super Mario 64
The VP of Human Resources is no longer with the company: New lawsuit, more relief, employee letter against Activision Blizzard and Bobby Kotick warns: “people will be held accountable for their actions”
Just yesterday J. Allen Brack was leaving his post in favor of Mike Ybarra and Jen Oneal and thanks to information from Axios and confirmed by a company spokesperson, we have learned that Jesse Meschuk, Blizzard’s senior vice president of global human resources, is no longer is in the company .
The company has not detailed more information about this march, although the person in charge has deleted his Twitter account . Meschuk was a department director until January 2021 and has been with Blizzard since 2009.
Axios reports that relations between employees and the human resources department have been the center of belittling and intimidation . The accounts of four current and former Activision Blizzard employees describe complaints about human resources, who have earned a reputation among workers for doing nothing about it.
What’s more, one of the former employees reveals that the response to a case of harassment was that “even if [Blizzard wants to] take it seriously, I’m not even sure what we would do.” Assaults by other employees taken with skepticism, lack of transparency in the processes , continuous staff rotations and various disrespect accumulate in the history of the department.
New lawsuit against Activision Blizzard: New lawsuit, more relief, employee letter against Activision Blizzard and Bobby Kotick warns: “people will be held accountable for their actions”
If this whole situation weren’t already problematic enough for Activision Blizzard, a new class action lawsuit joins the dilemma bandwagon. As Kotaku reports , this new open front has been filed in the US District Court for Central California.
The Rosen Law Firm is the law firm in charge of directing the case that is sent on behalf of the company’s investors; he is the same person who represents the investors in the case against CD Projekt for Cyberpunk 2077 . The main allegation is regarding the company’s intentional failure to report cases of sexual harassment and discrimination . The ultimate goal with this would be to artificially increase the value of the shares by not sharing that information, as indicated in the legal text.
This lawsuit covers individuals who have traded Activision Blizzard securities between August 4, 2016 and July 27, 2021. It seeks to obtain compensation for these allegations and directly targets Bobby Kotick, CFO Dennis Durkin and the former CFO Spencer Neumann.
The truth is that Activision Blizzard must present a series of annual certifications , signed by the executives and revealing to the public about any internal problem that may affect the value of the shares. This is the certification of the brand in 2016, revealed by Kotaku:
“We are a party to claims, lawsuits, investigations, audits and other routine procedures that arise out of the normal course of business, including with respect to intellectual property rights, contractual claims, labor matters, regulatory matters, tax matters, non-property matters. claims, compliance issues and collection issues In the opinion of management, after consultation with legal counsel, such routine claims and lawsuits are not material and we do not expect that they will have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results. of operations or liquidity “.
Finally, this class action lawsuit indicates that Activision Blizzard executives were aware of the harassment and discrimination, but deliberately decided to omit such information so as not to affect the company.
New employee statement
Among the measures that Activision Blizzard has taken to address all these issues, we find WilmerHale, a law firm that seeks to review the policies and procedures of the company, in order to create a safe work environment.
The ABK Workers Alliance, a group made up of Activision Blizzard employees, has shared a letter with IGN , in which they reject not only the measure, but the choice of said firm . According to them, there is a clear conflict of interest, as WilmerHale has “pre-existing relationships with Activision Blizzard and its executives.”
Another reason is WilmerHale’s reputation for being specialized in preventing the creation of unions , in addition to the fact that Stephanie Avakian, a representative of the group, specializes in protecting the rich and powerful.
The letter again urges the management to make the decisions recommended by the employees and they themselves assure that they have already begun to take their own steps with open listening sessions, mentoring or community meetings. ” We do what we can and we ask you to do what we cannot ,” the text ends.
