Posted on August 19th, 2021
Find below a complete transcript of this video.
Hello entrepreneurs, today I want to talk about the lawsuit filed by the DFEH against the gaming company, Activision blizzard, but first I’m a lawyer, but I’m not your lawyer.
So please consult competent legal counsel for your specific legal questions or needs activism.
Blizzard is responsible for some of the most iconic games, including world of Warcraft call of duty and candy crush, just to name a few.
The California department of fair employment and housing filed a complaint against Activision blizzard. Alleging the company, quote fostered a sexist culture where women were paid less than men and subjected to ongoing sexual harassment, including groping.
They also alleged that officials at the gaming company knew about the harassment and not only failed to stop it, but retaliated against women who spoke up the DFEH claims that a two year investigation found that the company discriminating against female employees in terms of conditions of employment, including compensation, assignments, promotions, and termination and company leadership consistently failed to take steps to prevent discrimination, harassment, and retaliation.
So according to the complaint filed in the Los Angeles superior court, female employees make up around 20% of the Activision blizzard workforce and are subjected to, uh, quote pervasive frat boy work, place culture, and often engage in inappropriate behavior towards female employees.
The agency seeks an injunction forcing compliance with workplace protections, as well as unpaid wages, pay adjustments, back, pay lost wages and benefits for female employees.
The company denies all of the allegations and a spokesman said, quote, we value diversity and strive to foster a workplace that offers inclusivity for everyone.
They went on to say, there is no place and, uh, the company or any industry for sexual misconduct or harassment of any kind. Okay. So who’s right and who’s wrong. Well, who knows? Right? The truth will likely come to light during the discovery phase of this litigation. And my suspicion will be that the truth is somewhere in the middle.
The company likely has some bad actors and the DFEH is likely painting this case and the worst light for the company.
Another company spokesman spokesman said the DFEH complaint includes distorted. And in many cases, false description of Blizzard’s pass. Uh, blizzard has been extremely cooperative with the DVH throughout their investigation, including providing them with extensive data, ample documentation, but the DFEH refused to inform blizzard what issues they perceived.
I think the DFEH sees a juicy target and they want to publicly prosecute this, this case. I found it interesting that the DFEH released a public statement on their letterhead that read to me like a politicized news broadcast with all of the right buzz words, to make Activision blizzard look like a cesspool of male perversion.
I also read the complaint filed, uh, with the courts and I found that the document to be unusual as well, the complaint, it starts out talking about how gaming is a male dominated industry and how the industry caters to men, even though women enjoy gaming also, but then admits that less than half of the world’s gamers are women.
So why wouldn’t the gaming industry cater to its largest market? I guess the notion of serving your customers, does it make any sense to California? The complaint goes on to say that the company’s top leadership is male and white and list the salaries of the leadership.
What I found interesting about that list is that the fourth highest paid person in this company of 9,500 people is a woman. And also the chief people officer. In other words the person that’s in charge of HR, you know, hiring, firing, taking complaints, fixing toxic culture and all the other things being complained about.
The DFEH goes on to list all the other bad acts. They alleged the company tolerated. And then the next paragraph listed California laws that allow the DFEH to bring suit.
One of those is jurisdiction that the DFEH brought this claim against the company because it’s located in Santa Monica. So could we soon see one of the largest and most successful gaming companies move out of California?
Well, only time will tell. And there are other states that would love to have 9,500 employees.
Anyway, until next time be productive.
