Former Activision Blizzard Executive Accuses Company of Discriminating Against 'Old White Men'
Activision Blizzard is facing another lawsuit. This time the plaintiff is one of its former executives, who suggests that Bobby Kotick may have contributed to a wave of discrimination at the company.
As reported by Law360, former Activision Blizzard executive James Reid Venable has filed a lawsuit in a California court accusing the company of age and skin color discrimination.
In his document, the 57-year-old recalls one of the board's conferences, during which Bobby Kotick - the then-CEO of the holding company - was said to have stated that the company's "problem" is that it has "too many old, white men working for it." Shortly after the incident, two white directors in their fifties left the company.
One of them reportedly recommended Venable in his place, but the latter was not given the position. Instead, a "younger, less qualified, less experienced employee of a non-white race" was promoted, according to the plaintiff. The latter was later said to have been hostile to a senior colleague and, by criticizing his actions, influenced him to receive the lowest merit-based pay raise in his nearly ten years at Activision Blizzard.
In the lawsuit, Venable also mentions a situation in which one of his female employees falsely accused him of taking advantage of "white male privilege", and that his report on the matter was allegedly ignored by the HR department.
In addition, the man claims that he was fired because of his age, and that "the need for job cuts and restructuring" was only an excuse to kick him out of the company, with which he had been associated since 2014. Venable points out that six other male employees aged 47 or older have left the corporation in recent months.
"Activision puts profits over people by firing older, better-paid managers," he explained in the lawsuit.
The former director is seeking damages from Activision Blizzard to compensate him for the loss of his source of earnings, the negative impact of the situation in question on his career development, damage to his reputation, wrongful contract termination and resulting emotional problems, as well as legal costs.
Editorial staff of GamesIndustry.biz asked Activision Blizzard to comment on the matter, to which a representative of the company referred journalists to a document describing the publisher's policy on employment issues. It reads that the corporation "recruits, hires, trains and promotes to all positions the most qualified individuals without regard to gender, race, color, national origin, ancestry, religion, physical or mental disability, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity [...] or any other basis protected by applicable federal, state or local law."
