Image: Activision Blizzard / Kotaku
A new proceeding by current employees against Activision Blizzard, a Call of Duty publisher, raises a new allegation of sexual harassment at the publisher, this time focusing on Blizzard’s IT leaders. According to the proceedings, current employees have repeatedly received unwanted progress, excitement, and inappropriate remarks. She says she reported it to HR, received retaliation, and was then handed over for her promotion in an attempt to expel her from her company.
The new proceedings filed in the Los Angeles Superior Court on March 23 represent the current employee (called Mr. Doe) who first filed these allegations at a press conference last December. Despite her commitment to assist the victims, Activision Blizzard claims she has been in retaliation against her employees for several months since she first appeared.
The proceedings state that she was handed over for promotion a few weeks later and was given no reason. She also said in January that the company lied to other employees in her email saying she had been fired. “Activision Blizzard’s relentless efforts to expel her continued on February 1, 2022, when he hired two new temporary workers to perform the exact duties that Mr. Doe performed. “The lawsuit states.
The proceedings also revealed new details about the apparent sexual misconduct that took place in Blizzard’s IT department, including former Chief Technology Officer Ben Kilgore, former Chief Information Officer Derek Ingalls, and former Chief Information Officer among the defendants. Appointed three former employees of IT director Mark Scorpa. .. The first two were former Microsoft employees before Blizzard. Skorupa is currently an employee of Microsoft. Microsoft has been scrutinizing the handling of past sexual harassment cases and is currently trading $ 68.7 billion to purchase Activision Blizzard.
Activision Blizzard, Ingalls, and Skorupa did not immediately respond to requests for comment. I couldn’t go to Kilgore right away. Microsoft declined to comment.
The deal took place when the stock price of a confused publisher fell after a proceedings a few months ago, alleging widespread sexual harassment and discrimination over the years at the company. Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick, accused of not dealing with abuse, subsequently apologized to employees and undertook a number of reforms, including a new zero-tolerance policy on harassment, tentatively with equal employment. Has signed a $ 18 million settlement. Opportunity Committee.
After the acquisition plan was announced in January, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella praised Cotic’s sense of business and, for months after the allegations were first published in July 2021, “toward his leadership and true change. Thank you for your efforts. But the issue of retaliation raises the question of how some of the company’s reforms have gone so far and profoundly.
Photo: David McNew (Getty Images)
In the proceedings, employees say sexual harassment began on the first day in Blizzard, in 2017 when she was taken to lunch and repeatedly advised to take a shot of tequila. At one point, her boss Scorpa “pressed her hand against Doe’s knee.” Other cases allegedly included unwanted hugs by Skorupa and Kilgore, comments on her breasts, and other inappropriate remarks. The proceedings accuse Ingalls of staying late with other male employees and forcing her to play a jackbox party game that often revolves around sexual jokes. She also claims that her executive management assistant once offered her sex and her senior IT manager tried to kiss her. Both are still used in Blizzard.
According to the proceedings, none of the designated employees intervened to stop the harassment or report to the personnel department. Instead, he claims that his employees have been retaliated for first reporting the abuse in August 2018, then losing responsibility and then being denied promotion or relocation from the department. He said that in some cases HR tried to allow the problematic behavior and in other cases he would deal with the problem, but apparently did not. She wrote to then-President Blizzard J. Allen Black about sexual harassment in 2019, saying that she was able to secure her position somewhere in the company for less wages. Insist.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Ingalls left Blizzard for work at Amazon in August 2019, and Scorpa left to return to Microsoft in December 2019. Kilgore reportedly ended in August 2018 after investigating multiple allegations of sexual misconduct. The proceedings allege that when this happened, some men in Blizzard’s leader took pictures, all gave the middle finger, and Ingalls later emailed it to others. “This photo informs Mr. Doe that leadership thought the departure for defendant Kirgoa’s sexual misconduct was a joke,” the proceedings allege.
Prior to being hired by Blizzard, he was a prominent VP of Xbox Program Management at Microsoft, helping to ship the Xbox One. Ingalls has helped launch as a longtime general manager of Xbox Live operations. Skorupa was the program manager for Xbox. After Kilgore was fired, Ingalls was reportedly “joking” at a meeting about how staff shouldn’t sleep with an assistant.
Blizzard’s Microsoft connection continues to this day. The current president, Mike Ibarra, was Vice President of Game Pass before joining Overwatch Maker in 2019. “Tonight’s dinner with Kilgore and Ingalls should be fun to meet friends.” He tweeted in October 2019.. “It’s strange how roles / jobs break people apart.”
In addition to damages due to lost wages, humiliation, mental distress, and other harms, the latest Activision Blizzard proceedings have rotated HR to Activision to avoid conflicts of interest and dismiss CEO Bobby Kotick. We are also seeking a court order to force the establishment of a department. Kotick is expected to resign after the deal with Microsoft is signed, but he will not resign before an estimated $ 390 million is paid as a result of the acquisition.
The law firm representing Cotic did not immediately respond to the request for comment.