Former Blizzard co-lead, Jennifer Oneal, reportedly only received an equal pay offer alongside fellow co-lead Mike Ybarra after handing in her resignation letter.
The news comes amidst a flurry of negative and worrying reports about activities within Activision Blizzard. An IGN report found internal messages sent by Oneal, which claimed that she and Ybarra had made “multiple” requests for equal pay which were rejected.
In the Slack messages visible to Blizzard employees, she wrote “when Mike and I were placed in the same co-lead role, we went into the role with our previous compensation, which was not equivalent.” Oneal continued, “it remained that way for some time well after we made multiple rejected requests to change it to parity.”
She finished by saying that “while the company informed me before I tendered my resignation that they were working on a new proposal, we were made equivalent offers only after I tendered that resignation.”
Ybarra also wrote that “Jen and I shared with management that we wanted to be paid the same to co-lead Blizzard together.” He explained that “Jen and I were both on existing contracts. I ran [Battle.net & Online Products] and she ran [Vicarious Visions] so our pay was different. The first time both Jen and I were offered a new contract, it was the same across both of us for the new co-leader of Blizzard roles, so our compensation was going to be the same.”
Earlier this month, Oneal stepped down from her post. At the time, she wrote, ““I am doing this not because I am without hope for Blizzard, quite the opposite — I’m inspired by the passion of everyone here, working towards meaningful, lasting change with their whole hearts.”
Oneal is set to leave the role at the end of the year.
A number of allegations have been made against Activision Blizzard in recent times. Earlier this week, it was discovered that, allegedly, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick knew about sexual misconduct at the firm for years. Following the allegations, over 200 employees staged a walkout to protest the company’s leadership with shareholders also joining calls for Kotick’s resignation.
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