State of California accused Call of Duty makers of offering lower pay and promotion opportunities to women
Over two years on from that filing, California’s Civil Rights Departmentannouncedthat they had now reached an agreement with Activision Blizzard to settle the suit with regards to their Equal Pay Act and Fair Employment and Housing Act laws.
Any leftover money from the fund will benefit charities and other organisations “focused on advancing women in the video game and technology industries or promoting awareness around gender equality issues in the workplace”.
In addition, the CRD said that “Activision Blizzard will take additional steps to help ensure fair pay and promotion practices at the company”. Those steps include retaining an independent consultant who will evaluate and make recommendations regarding compensation, promotion and training at the company.
As reported by theWall Street Journal, the reaching of the settlement means that the CRD will dismiss their suit and claims that “Activision Blizzard senior executives ignored, condoned or tolerated a culture of systemic, harassment, retaliation, or discrimination”. The state department said that “no court or any independent investigation has substantiated any allegations [of] systemic or widespread sexual harassment at Activision Blizzard”.
“We are gratified that we have reached an agreement with the California Civil Rights Department today,” Activision Blizzard toldGamesIndustry.bizin a statement. “We appreciate the importance of the issues addressed in this agreement and we are dedicated to fully implementing all the new obligations we have assumed as part of it.
“We want our employees to know that, as the agreement specifies, we are committed to ensuring fair compensation and promotion policies and practices for all our employees, and we will continue our efforts regarding inclusion of qualified candidates from underrepresented communities in outreach, recruitment, and retention.”
“As the CRD also expressly acknowledged in the agreement, ‘no court or independent investigation has substantiated any allegations that there has been systemic or widespread sexual harassment at Activision Blizzard.’ In addition, the CRD has acknowledged that no court or independent investigation substantiated any allegations that ‘Activision Blizzard’s Board of Directors, including its Chief Executive Officer, Robert Kotick, acted improperly with regard to the handling of any instances of workplace misconduct.'”
