Another Activision Blizzard worker files sexual harassment lawsuit

Activision Blizzard employees are suing the company for allegedly failing to stop sexual harassment and discrimination at work. The complaint, filed last week in the Los Angeles Superior Court, details alleged repeated sexual advances and harassment from an Activision Blizzard manager — who is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit — as well as revenge porn and sexual battery. Daily Mail reported on the suit for the first time.

Jane Doe is Activision Blizzard employees. Jane Doe was named in court records as Jane Doe. Jane details her interactions with Miguel Vega over the course of the 24-page complaint. She’s represented by high-profile lawyer Lisa Bloom, who said TuesdayOn Twitter, Bloom stated that The Bloom Firm is representing eight women who have filed sexual harassment complaints against Activision Blizzard. After filing suit on behalf Christine, an IT worker, Bloom hosted a press conference. Bloom has said each of these eight women will file their own individual lawsuits “to make sure they’re fairly compensated,” according to dot.LA.

“Activision Blizzard is a massive video game company with a massive sexual harassment problem,” lawyers for Doe allege in the lawsuit. Lawyers described Doe’s incidents in detail:

Activision Blizzard’s failure to curb sexist and harassing conduct emboldened manager Miguel Vega to abuse, belittle and insult Ms. Doe by making comments to her about oral sex, masturbation and orgasms, threatening her job if she would not consent to sex, mocking her breasts, and commenting on other female employees’ attractiveness. He also threatened repeatedly to publish a compromising photograph of Ms. Doe.

Activision Blizzard has not yet responded to Polygon’s request for comment.

Doe and others reportedly brought the outlined harassment to Activision Blizzard’s human resources department multiple times; Vega was fired in September 2021 after years of alleged sexual harassment and misconduct. Doe said the repeated, “unwanted sexual advances” impacted her job performance and left her “humiliated, depressed and anxious.”

Doe and her lawyers are looking for damages and lost pay to be determined through a trial, as well as an order requiring Activision Blizzard to drop its arbitration policies for sexual harassment and gender-discrimination claims.

Activision Blizzard was the victim of a series of discrimination and sexual harassment lawsuits after a suit brought by California Department of Fair Employment and Housing in July 2021. DFEH’s lawsuit accuses Bobby Kotick (CEO) and several executives of knowing about and encouraging this misconduct. In November, the Wall Street Journal reported in great detail about these allegations. They claimed that Kotick knew and allowed rape to occur at the company. In 2021, $18 million was paid to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Workers at the company have responded by pushing back. This has led to numerous walkouts, and calls for Kotick’s resignation. With the last walkout in July 2022, workers pushed for Activision Blizzard to “end gender inequity at the company.”

Activision Blizzard, Microsoft and others are trying to persuade government regulators that the $68.7 Billion merger agreement isn’t anti-competitive.