Game company Activision Blizzard has already fired 37 employees and punished about 40 more over the past six months, thus responding to allegations of numerous cases of sexual harassment and discrimination against women.
According to The Wall Street Journal, citing its own sources, Blizzard was supposed to publish a report on disciplinary sanctions before the New Year holidays, but CEO Bob Kotick decided to delay the publication, as this could badly affect the company’s reputation. In a conversation with some of his colleagues, he said that the publication of these figures could give the impression that the case of inappropriate behavior and harassment of women in the company is much worse than previously known.
Sources of the publication claim that the report collected as part of an internal investigation of Blizzard refers to 700 employee reports of inappropriate behavior and other violations (some of the messages are duplicated). However, company spokeswoman Hilane Klasky denied this information, saying that as a result of the audit, 37 employees were fired, and another 44 suffered disciplinary punishment. She also denied information about Mr. Kotik’s unwillingness to publish this report.
Last July, following media reports of complaints from Activision Blizzard employees about a harmful corporate culture, the state of California filed a lawsuit against the company accusing it of violating equal pay and opportunities for men and women. Separate lawsuits were filed by the company’s investors. In September, employees of the company filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Administration of the United States: according to the association of employees A Better ABK, the complaint concerns the practice of forced conflict resolution through arbitration. At the end of September, the US Securities and Exchange Commission launched its own investigation against the company.
As a result, Activision entered into an agreement with the US Commission on Equal Employment Opportunities, under which the game company will allocate $18 million to compensate victims of discrimination and sexual harassment. new leaders – Jen Onil and Mike Ybarra. In addition, Bob Kotick himself said in November that he was ready to consider leaving if all issues related to the scandal could not be resolved “quickly”.
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