California Sues Gaming Giant Activision Blizzard Over Allegations Of Sex Discrimination, Unequal Pay

Video game giant Activision Blizzard has been sued by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing over workspace culture. The company has been accused of having a ‘frat boy’ culture. After an investigation, that went for two years, the department found that female employees of the company are not only subjected to harassment but were also not getting salaries as par per their male colleagues. The company, which has made some of the popular games like World of Warcraft and Diablo, was found to be discriminating against female employees at various fronts. The Department has now filed the suit which is also the culmination of the investigation.

From remuneration to condition of employment to promotion and termination, the company discriminated in almost everything. But the shocking part was that company failed to take any step to check all these things, the agency said. According to the suit filed in the Los Angeles Superior Court, 20 percent of the workforce of Activision is female. It says that male employees of the company drink a large amount of alcohol in the office and were often involved in inappropriate behavior with female co-workers. The agency said that top executives of the company were fully aware of the situation and/or even involved in it.

The agency said that male employees would play video games during office hours. On top of that, they would delegate all work-related responsibilities to female employees. Male employees would often engage in sexual jokes and talk openly about rape in front of female colleagues. The agency alleges that female employees noted that their male counterparts would hit on them. The suit filed against the company also talks about the incident where a female employee took her own life during an official trip with a male supervisor. Responding to it, the company said that it takes every allegation seriously. “We will get all these claims investigated. There is no place in our company or in any company for harassment of any kind. We want to assure that strictest actions were taken to address cases related to misconduct,” the spokesperson said.