The Daily Populous Thursday July 29th, 2021 morning edition
Authored by theverge.com and submitted by a_Ninja_b0y

In a new letter, Activision Blizzard employees said that CEO Bobby Kotick’s note addressing allegations of sexual harassment and workplace discrimination at the company “fails to address critical elements at the heart of employee concerns.” Last week, California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) filed a huge lawsuit against the company bringing the allegations to light.

Staff slammed the company’s initial response to the lawsuit, and in Wednesday’s response, the employees said they are pleased to see that they have “convinced leadership to change the tone of their communications.” But employees point out that Kotick’s letter does not address some key areas of concern, including ending forced arbitration for all employees and the need for greater pay transparency. We have published the employees’ full response at the end of this article.

Employees are set to walk out in response to the company’s handling of the allegations at 1PM ET / 10AM PT. Activision Blizzard leadership informed employees Tuesday that they won’t receive repercussions for attending and will receive paid time off.

On the evening before our employee walkout, Activision Blizzard leadership released a statement apologizing for their harmful responses to last week’s DFEH lawsuit. While we are pleased to see that our collective voices — including an open letter with thousands of signatures from current employees — have convinced leadership to change the tone of their communications, this response fails to address critical elements at the heart of employee concerns.

Activision Blizzard’s response did not address the following:

The end of forced arbitration for all employees.

Worker participation in oversight of hiring and promotion policies.

The need for greater pay transparency to ensure equality.

Employee selection of a third party to audit HR and other company processes.

Today’s walkout will demonstrate that this is not a one-time event that our leaders can ignore. We will not return to silence; we will not be placated by the same processes that led us to this point.

This is the beginning of an enduring movement in favor of better labor conditions for all employees, especially women, in particular women of color and transgender women, nonbinary people, and other marginalized groups.

We expect a prompt response and a commitment to action from leadership on the points enumerated above, and look forward to maintaining a constructive dialogue on how to build a better Activision Blizzard for all employees.

Today, we stand up for change. Tomorrow and beyond, we will be the change.

D14BL0 on July 28th, 2021 at 23:21 UTC »

Well of course the letter isn't going to address the key concerns, when the key concerns are the subject of an ongoing lawsuit targeted at his company. He probably had to get a team of lawyers to analyze every word of every sentence before he was allowed to publish that letter.

I don't think anybody expected an open letter to solve anything.

StillhasaWiiU on July 28th, 2021 at 17:46 UTC »

The only people that like Bobby Kotick are the stock holders. He is a burden to all of gaming culture.

irideapaleh0rse on July 28th, 2021 at 17:24 UTC »

The top is always tone deaf.