Activision Blizzard, the publishing giant behind everything from Call of Duty to Overwatch, is being sued by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing over a “frat boy” workplace culture that it alleges has led to years of harassment and abuse targeting the women in its workforce.
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Content warning: suicide, harassment, rape
Bloomberg reports that the suit, filed on July 20, is the culmination of a two-year investigation into the publisher by the Department, which says that Activision Blizzard’s “compliance with California’s broad workplace protections is long overdue.”
“To enforce such compliance,” the case says, “DFEH brings this government enforcement action seeking to remedy, prevent and deter [Activision Blizzard’s] violations of state’s civil rights and equal pay laws.”
While pointing out the lack of women in leadership positions at the company, and the difficulties they have faced in gaining promotions, the suit also highlights enormous pay discrepancies at the executive level between women and men, and says women are not only promoted more slowly, they’re also terminated “more quickly than their male counterparts.”
The company’s “frat boy” workplace culture is also mentioned, as a “breeding ground for harassment and discrimination against women.” Some of the examples provided include:
Also highlighted were situations where “female employees were…treated negatively due to their pregnancies,” (we reported in 2019 that Activision was seeking to monitor employee’s pregnancies).
And instances where “women of color were particularly vulnerable targets” of “discriminatory practices.”
The suit also accuses Activision Blizzard of failing to act on “numerous complaints” concerning harassment, discrimination and retaliation from male colleagues over those complaints, and says employees affected were “further discouraged from complaining as human resource personnel were known to be close to alleged harassers.”
The DFEH has brought the suit seeking an injunction that will force Activision Blizzard to not only begin complying with state workplace laws, but also address “unpaid wages, pay adjustments, back pay, and lost wages and benefits for female employees.”
In January of this year, Activision Blizzard called attempts to make its workplace more diverse “unworkable”.
Update 7/21/2021 10 p.m. ET: Activision has responded to the DFEH’s suit with a lengthy statement that calls the DFEH and its suit, “irresponsible behavior from unaccountable State bureaucrats.”
Update 7/22/2021 5:40am ET: Further examples of the alleged treatment of mothers and black employees added to the story.
