Male staff at video game publisher Activision Blizzard subjected a former female employee to multiple instances of sexual assault and harassment and failed to pay her for all hours worked, the plaintiff alleged in a lawsuit filed last week in the California Superior Court for Los Angeles County.
The plaintiff in Doe v. Activision Blizzard, Inc., began working for the company’s Blizzard division as a part time employee before transitioning to salaried roles. In one alleged incident, a male co-worker lured the plaintiff to his apartment, assaulted her and attempted rape. The plaintiff said she reported the conduct to her supervisor and HR but claimed that the co-worker faced no discipline and instead had been promoted.
In all, the plaintiff alleged instances of sexual assault or harassment perpetrated by nine different male staffers and claimed to face “aggressive and hostile treatment” from another director-level male employee. The alleged conduct encompassed acts such as inappropriate touching, unwanted sexual advances and nonconsensual access of the plaintiff’s hotel room during a trip to France.
Despite repeated attempts to report the conduct to HR, Blizzard failed to take action, the plaintiff alleged. She further claimed that Blizzard’s HR department had been dismissive and hostile towards her complaints and were even “known to be close to the alleged harassers.” She similarly claimed that the department destroyed or withheld relevant investigative documents and retaliated against the plaintiff and other women who raised similar concerns.
Activision Blizzard did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The plaintiff also detailed wage-and-hour claims against Activision Blizzard, alleging that she was asked to sign a meal-period waiver and either underreport or not report overtime hours, was not paid for all hours worked and was required to work excessive and unsafe hours, which at times meant she had to sleep at her office.
Activision Blizzard allegedly subjected the plaintiff to gender pay discrimination, too, at one point paying her $10 per hour while male colleagues earned $18 per hour. She claimed that this disparity took the company more than six months to correct.
The plaintiff said the combined conduct led to her constructive discharge in 2024.
“The continuous physical, mental, financial, and emotional abuse that Plaintiff suffered over fourteen and one-half years rendered her working conditions so intolerable that a reasonable person in her position would have felt compelled to resign,” according to the complaint.
Activision Blizzard, which owns popular video game franchises such as “World of Warcraft” and “Overwatch,” is just a short time removed from a multi-year legal saga alleging the existence of a widespread culture of sex- and gender-based discrimination.
It began with the 2021 announcement of a lawsuit by California regulators, who claimed that Activision Blizzard maintained a “frat boy culture” in which female employees were routinely subjected to sexual harassment, some of which was perpetrated by company executives.
Further allegations stated that women were frequently paid less than men despite performing similar work, and were assigned to lower-level jobs, promoted less frequently and fired or forced to quit more frequently than men.
Observers who previously spoke to HR Dive surmised that Activision Blizzard’s HR department may have sanctioned the conduct, noting that California’s complaint claimed the function wasn’t trusted or well-regarded within the company. Objections to the conduct were allegedly “treated in a perfunctory manner and not kept confidential,” leading to retaliation against victims.
Activision Blizzard eventually agreed to a $54 million settlement to bring an end to the California lawsuit on top of an earlier $18 million settlement and consent decree with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission over alleged violation of federal employment laws.
All the while, Microsoft acquired Activision Blizzard in a deal valued at more than $75 billion. At the time, HR experts questioned how the technology giant would attempt to integrate the beleaguered publisher’s culture into its own. Some who spoke to HR Dive said that rebuilding trust by eliminating organizational silos and identifying problematic leaders would be part of this process.