Today, an Activision Blizzard employee claimed in a press conference outside the developer’s California HQ that she experienced “unwanted sexual advances” & “inappropriate touching”.
During a press conference chaired by celebrity lawyer Lisa Bloom and streamed on her Instagram, an employee named Christine, whose surname was withheld upon request, alleged that during her four years with the company, she’d experienced a litany of sexual harassment and labelled developer as having a “frat-boy culture”.
She went on to allege that she was once invited to have “casual sex” with a supervisor and that when she complained about this, she was told that the accused were “just joking” and that she should “get over it”.
Christine also said that she was told to not go to HR and that the people doing this to her were “just trying to be friends” and that they had done “nothing wrong by law”.She then alleges that she was demoted following these complaints and that she’s been denied employee privileges such as profit sharing because of these issues.
Following her statement, Lisa Bloom listed the various lawsuits that the company currently faces before laying out three demands that she and her client have in relation to this incident.
“We don’t need more corporate blah blah blah”, began Lisa Bloom, before revealing her first demand. “We demand a streamlined, fast, fair process for victims to resolve their legal claims with an expanded victim compensations fund”, Bloom began, before adding, “Don’t make people like Christine file a lawsuit and then fight for years against the big law firms that this company has hired to defend it” Bloom went on to say “set up a fund in excess of 100 million” and to “let victim advocates participate in setting the rules “.
Her second demand was for Activision Blizzard to issue a “real apology to Christine and the victims to have to live with the fallout of sexual harassment”.
Finally, Bloom demanded “a review from a natural third party of the career damage employees like Christine have endured and then fix it, give her the job she’s entitled to” this referencing the demotion and lack of upward job mobility Christine faced following her reports.
Lisa Bloom concluded the 10-minute conference with a call to others affected by the allegations: “If you were a victim of Activision Blizzard, we want to speak to you.
NME has reached out to Activision Blizzard for comment and this article will be updated if we get a response.
For help, advice or more information regarding sexual harassment, assault and rape in the UK, visit the Rape Crisis charity website. In the US, visit RAINN.
FOR HELP AND ADVICE ON MENTAL HEALTH:
- YOUNG MINDS – The voice for young people’s health and wellbeing
- CALM – The Campaign Against Living Miserably for young men
- Time To Change – Let’s end mental health discrimination
- The Samaritans – Confidential support 24 hours a day
- MIND – The National Association For Mental Health
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