Greater than 100 Activision Blizzard workers staged a walkout on Tuesday calling for Kotick to step down as CEO, based on the group organizing it. The walkout got here in response to a Wall Road Journal investigation printed earlier within the day, which cited inner firm paperwork and folks accustomed to the matter indicating that Kotick was conscious of these points for a number of years.
Whereas the report prompted renewed pressure with some workers, Activision Blizzard’s board of administrators reiterated its assist of Kotick. “The Board stays assured in Bobby Kotick’s management, dedication and skill” to handle the corporate’s longstanding and ongoing points with harassment and discrimination, it stated in an announcement Tuesday.
In an announcement, the organizers behind the walkout stated: “The board is simply as complicit in the event that they let this slide. It is previous time for Bobby to step down.”
Activision Blizzard (ATVI) — which owns vastly standard titles similar to “Name of Responsibility,” “World of Warcraft” and “Sweet Crush” — has been roiled by a sexual harassment and discrimination scandal for months and is at the moment underneath scrutiny from a number of authorities companies.
A lawsuit filed in July by California’s Division of Honest Employment and Housing alleged a “frat boy” work tradition the place ladies had been subjected to fixed discrimination and harassment. (The corporate informed CNN on the time that it had addressed previous misconduct and criticized the lawsuit as “inaccurate” and “distorted.”)
The lawsuit and the corporate’s preliminary response kicked off a storm of dissent from Activision Blizzard’s workforce that in the end led to tons of of workers staging a walkout on the firm’s workplaces in Irvine, California. Kotick subsequently acknowledged that the corporate’s preliminary response was “tone deaf.”
The corporate can be dealing with a criticism from the Nationwide Labor Relations Board filed in September accusing it of unfair labor practices, in addition to an investigation by the Securities and Alternate Fee that the corporate has stated it’s cooperating with. These actions are all nonetheless pending, and Activision Blizzard stated it “continues to productively have interaction with regulators.”
The corporate additionally paid $18 million to settle a separate lawsuit by the Equal Employment Alternative Fee (EEOC) that accused it of subjecting feminine workers to sexual harassment, retaliating in opposition to them for complaining about harassment, and paying feminine workers lower than male workers. The corporate additionally “discriminated in opposition to workers as a consequence of their being pregnant,” the EEOC alleged.
In an announcement accompanying the EEOC settlement announcement, Kotick stated he remained “unwavering in my dedication to make Activision Blizzard one of many world’s most inclusive, revered, and respectful workplaces.”
Kotick, who has been Activision CEO since 1991, together with on the time of the 2008 merger with Blizzard, has been in harm management mode for many of this 12 months.
Final month, he introduced an intention to slash his controversial $155 million pay bundle — one of many largest in company America — to the “lowest quantity California legislation will permit” till the gaming firm fixes its points with gender discrimination and harassment. If the board approves, Kotick will likely be paid $62,500, he stated.
