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An nameless reader quotes a report from NPR: The online game studio behind the hit franchises Name of Responsibility, World of Warcraft and Sweet Crush is going through a civil lawsuit in California over allegations of gender discrimination, sexual harassment and potential violations of the state’s equal pay regulation. A grievance, filed by the state Division of Honest Employment and Housing on Wednesday, alleges that Activision Blizzard Inc. “fostered a sexist tradition” the place ladies had been paid lower than males and subjected to ongoing sexual harassment together with groping. (Activision and Blizzard Leisure merged in 2008.)
Officers on the gaming firm knew in regards to the harassment and never solely did not cease it however retaliated in opposition to ladies who spoke up, the grievance additionally alleges. Years after the net harassment marketing campaign referred to as Gamergate focused ladies within the online game world, the California lawsuit depicts an trade that may nonetheless be unwelcoming and even hostile to feminine staff. “All employers ought to be sure that their staff are being paid equally and take all steps to stop discrimination, harassment, and retaliation,” mentioned DFEH Director Kevin Kish. “That is particularly essential for employers in male-dominated industries, corresponding to know-how and gaming.”
The lawsuit alleges that Activision Blizzard’s feminine staff who spoke to investigators “nearly universally confirmed” that their time on the firm was “akin to working in a frat home.” Male staff drank on the job and got here to work hungover, the lawsuit mentioned. The alleged sexual harassment ranged from feedback about ladies’s our bodies and jokes about rape to the undesirable touching of feminine staff by their male friends. The grievance, which was the results of a two-year investigation by DFEH, claims that the unequal remedy of ladies went past firm tradition to the extra formal elements of their jobs. Ladies had been allegedly paid lower than males, each after they had been employed and in the course of the course of their employment. They had been additionally assigned to lower-level positions and handed over for promotions, regardless of doing extra work than their male friends in some circumstances, in keeping with the lawsuit. One girl mentioned her supervisor instructed her she would not be promoted as a result of “she would possibly get pregnant and like being a mother an excessive amount of.” The intercourse discrimination was even worse for ladies of colour, the swimsuit claims. A minimum of two African-American ladies reported being singled out and micromanaged. Among the ladies who got here ahead with complaints of discrimination or harassment confronted involuntary transfers, had been chosen for layoffs or had been denied sure alternatives, the swimsuit mentioned. In an announcement, an Activision Blizzard spokesperson mentioned the corporate had labored to enhance its firm tradition lately and accused the DFEH of not adequately attempting to resolve the claims in opposition to it earlier than resorting to a lawsuit.
“The DFEH contains distorted, and in lots of circumstances false, descriptions of Blizzard’s previous,” the assertion learn. “The image the DFEH paints just isn’t the Blizzard office of at present.”
In response to the corporate’s rebuttal, former Blizzard Leisure worker Cher Scarlett tweeted: “That is definitely LONG overdue. I might be hard-pressed to search out somebody that wasn’t witness to intercourse within the recreation lounges, coke within the bogs throughout a dice crawl, or a girl who wasn’t sexually harassed no less than as soon as. I’m so happy with these ladies.” Scarlett added: “Blizzard has claimed that the DFEH report is fake/deceptive/irresponsible. I can inform you that I knew what was going to be on this report earlier than I learn it as a result of throughout my time there – for under a YEAR – I witnessed ALL OF THESE THINGS. AND NAME NAMES.”
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