Activision Blizzard employees are planning a walkout to protest the way the company is handling the recent sex discrimination allegations. The aim of the walkout is to “improve conditions for employees at the company, especially women, and in particular women of color and transgender women, nonbinary people, and other marginalized groups.”
The information comes from Bloomberg and IGN. The walkout will take place at Blizzard’s main campus in Irvine, California from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Pacific on July 28. A virtual walkout will be staged the same day from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Pacific, with employees encouraged to stop work and use the hashtag #ActiBlizzWalkout.
Below is the list of the demands the employees are making:
1. An end to mandatory arbitration clauses in all employee contracts, current and future. Arbitration clauses protect abusers and limit the ability of victims to seek restitution.
2. The adoption of recruiting, interviewing, hiring, and promotion policies designed to improve representation among employees at all levels, agreed upon by employees in a company-wide Diversity, Equity & Inclusion organization. Current practices have led to women, in particular women of color and transgender women, nonbinary people, and other marginalized groups that are vulnerable to gender discrimination not being hired fairly for new roles when compared to men.
3. Publication of data on relative compensation (including equity grants and profit sharing), promotion rates, and salary ranges for employees of all genders and ethnicities at the company. Current practices have led to aforementioned groups not being paid or promoted fairly.
4. Empower a company-wide Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion task force to hire a third party to audit ABK’s reporting structure, HR department, and executive staff. It is imperative to identify how current systems have failed to prevent employee harassment, and to propose new solutions to address these issues.