Activision Blizzard employees plan walkout

Following a lawsuit from the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing which accused Activision Blizzard fostering a workplace culture that allows discrimination and sexual harrassment, a group of employees have revealed that they plan to stage a walkout protest on Wednesday, July 28.

In a statement circulated to various outlets, including Bloomberg, Polygon, and Wowhead, the employees say that the walkout is intended to demonstrate four primary demands: an end mandatory arbitration in all current and future employee contracts, an employee-agreed diverse hiring plan, the publication of relative compensation and salary details, and third-party audit of the company’s HR department and executive staff.

Organisers plan to meet for four hours outside of the Blizzard campus. Employees who are unable to join the physical protest are encouraged to stop work during the walkout and share their participation via an #ActiBlizzWalkout hashtag. The organisers encourage supportive community members to use that hashtag as well, and to consider donating to Black Girls Code, Futures Without Violence, Girls Who Code, RAINN, Women In Animation, or Women In Games International.

Employees have criticised Activision Blizzard’s public response to the lawsuit, penning an open letter asking the company to “demonstrate compassion for victims of harassment and assault”. The letter has been signed by over 2,000 employees, and that number continues to grow.

Former Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime issued a statement of his own this week, saying “It is the responsibility of leadership to stamp out toxicity and harassment in any form, across all levels of the company. To the Blizzard women who experienced any of these things, I am extremely sorry that I failed you.”

{“schema”:{“page”:{“content”:{“headline”:”Activision Blizzard employees plan walkout”,”type”:”news”,”category”:”world-of-warcraft”},”user”:{“loginstatus”:false},”game”:{“publisher”:”Blizzard Entertainment”,”genre”:”MMO”,”title”:”World of Warcraft”,”genres”:[“MMO”,”RPG”,”Subscription”]}}}}