Employees have filed a new lawsuit against Activision Blizzard accusing the company of using “coercive tactics” to thwart organizational efforts to improve working conditions, amid ongoing legal action by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing in · Alleging sexual harassment, discrimination and the boy’s work culture on Blizzard.
Following this first dossier, employees ’organizational efforts saw more than 2,000 current and former Activision Blizzard staff sign a petition describing the company’s initial and widely presumed response to the lawsuit as“ unpleasant. and insulting, ”with the subsequent strike action in which more than 500 workers walked and“ hundreds ”more involved virtually around the world in an effort to improve working conditions.
However, the new lawsuit, filed with the National Labor Review Board by the ABetterABK workers’ group in conjunction with Communications Workers of America, alleges that Activision Blizzard has been involved in “unfair labor practices” in the past six months. the laws established in the National Labor Relations Act.
“Activision Blizzard management uses coercive tactics to try to prevent its employees from exercising their rights to stay together and demand a more equitable, sustainable and diverse workplace,” the CWA wrote in a press release announcing legal action. “Their right as workers is to organize for a work environment free from abuse, discrimination and sexual harassment, and that right is protected by federal labor law.
According to the statement, Activision Blizzard has “threatened employees who cannot speak or communicate about wages, hours and working conditions,” he told employees who “cannot communicate or discuss ongoing investigations into wages, hours, and conditions.” “he has maintained a too broad social media policy” and has applied this policy “against employees who have carried out protected concerted activities” (i.e., the activities of workers protected under federal law), they have ” treated or disciplined employees because of the protected concerted activity “,” engaged in the surveillance of employees engaged in protected concerted activities “and” engaged in interrogations of employees on protected concerted activities “.
This “protected concerted activity” has included the request for improvements in working conditions to Activision Blizzard, with ABetterABK continuing to list four lawsuits: the end of forced arbitration in employment contracts, the adoption of hiring practices and hiring inclusive, increased wage transparency through metric offsets, and an audit of ABK policies and practices by a neutral third party.
Activision Blizzard has so far met one of these demands by commissioning a third-party audit of ABK’s practices and policies. However, his choice of firm, WilmerHale, has been heavily criticized by the law firm’s reputation for destroying unions.
This latest lawsuit is not the first to accuse Activision Blizzard of deception in its response to initial allegations by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing, of course. Recently, the DFEH updated its lawsuit, alleging that Activision Blizzard’s human resources department had shredded documents related to staff complaints and internal investigations, a statement the Call of Duty editor described as “not true.”