American video game company Activision Blizzard was accused of illegally retaliating against its employees for unionizing.
This has prompted the Communications Worker of America (CWA) to file an unfair labor practices complaint against the company.
Submitted on Friday, June 3, to the US National Labor Relations Board, the complaint states that Activision Blizzard violated federal law by terminating 12 Wisconsin employees and reorganizing the operations at Raven Software, the company's subsidiary.
Activision Blizzard Accused of Retaliating Against Employees
According to Engadget, Activision Blizzard laid off 12 of its QA contractors in January. This is despite Raven Software asking to keep them on.
The move caused workers at the gaming studio to go on a strike, demanding that all contractors be hired as full-time employees.
Aside from the unjustified firing of the QA contractors, the gaming company is also accused of actively discouraging its workers from voting to unionize.
Also Read : Activision Blizzard: Promoting Part-Timers to Regular Employees, Gives Salary Raise to Workers
Jessica Gonzalez, Activision Blizzards union organizer, posted on Twitter in January that the company's VP of QA Chris Arends, posted a message on a Slack channel telling the workers that a union does not do anything to help the company produce games and that it only reduces flexibility.
Arends also wrote that unionization in a company only leads to negative publicity.
The Washington Post revealed that Activision Blizzard's executives would regularly hold town meetings to dissuade its employees from organizing. They would also send emails asking the workers to vote "no" to unionization.
However, their efforts failed because the CWA won the election with a vote of 19 to 3. Microsoft, which is set to purchase Activision Blizzard for $69 billion, said on Thursday, June 2, that it would work with unions representing employees so they can come up with a solution.
Threatening Employees
This is not the first instance that a video game company was accused of intimidating its employees. In April, Activision Blizzard was accused of threatening its employees so they won't talk about the sexual harassment and discrimination lawsuits that the company is facing.
The Verge reported that the complaint revealed that a manager threatened an employee after posting an article about the harassment lawsuit on Slack. The employee was also warned about discussing the lawsuit with their co-workers.
Gonzales pointed out that the gaming company has a pattern of retaliation against its employees who speak out. This pattern has only gotten stronger as Activision Blizzard faces more complaints and lawsuits.
In July, California's Department of Fair Employment and Housing sued the gaming company, saying that its female employees faced constant sexual harassment from their male co-workers and managers and were always discriminated against when it came to promotions.
Since then, there have been several settlements, lawsuits, employee action, and shakeups at Activision Blizzard, along with a scandal after California Governor Gavin Newsom was accused of interfering with the lawsuits.
The CWS said that employees should be able to discuss the company's current issues because they have real impacts on their professional and personal lives.
Related Article: Activision Blizzard Devs Announce Work Stoppage and Strike Fund
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Written by Sophie Webster
