Activision Blizzards leadership has promised to make the company safe for women, but California has accused them of illegally withholding evidence and shredding documents it requested. (via Axios). California's Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH), filed the lawsuit in July. The suit claimed that the company created a culture of discrimination and sexual harassment for female employees.
You can find the updated complaint below. The original complaint is available here. The new complaint contains extremely disturbing details and warrants the same content warning that the original.
Activision Blizzard claimed attorney-client privilege in the amended complaint.
The DFEH claims that Activision Blizzard encourages employees to speak to WilmerHale lawyers instead of state investigators. After this, the state is denied access to the evidence as the conversations were confidential. Activision Blizzard was already criticized by a shareholder of the company and the media for hiring WilmerHale. This is a well-known union-busting law office that helped Amazon defeat their workers' attempts to organize in Alabama.
Activision Blizzard also claimed that Activision Blizzard attempted to get employees to waive their right to speak freely to investigators through secret settlements and non-disclosure agreement (NDAs). This would require employees notify Activision Blizzard prior to disclosing any information regarding settlements or incidents covered under the NDA. They could also decide what employees can freely say and allow the company to take any steps necessary to limit or prevent disclosure.
Now, the complaint accuses the company with shredding documents related investigations
Activision Blizzard promised to work to improve its culture following the initial public response that was criticised by employees who then staged a walkout. In a July letter to employees, the CEO of Activision Blizzard stated that any employee found to have impeded our process for evaluating claims or imposing the appropriate consequences would be fired. Activision Blizzard spoke out to IGN, stating that they didn't destroy any documents and had kept information relevant for the DFEH investigation.
This complaint has been updated to clarify that it does not include full-time employees but also temp workers and contingent workers who have experienced discrimination and sexual harassment.
