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Activision Blizzard urges shareholders to vote against proposed abuse report

Activision Blizzard urges shareholders to vote against proposed abuse report

US games giant Activision Blizzard has asked its shareholders to vote against the creation of an annual report into misconduct at the company.

In a notice to investorsspotted by Axios – the publisher said that the New York State Common Retirement Fund has proposed the preparation of such a report annually into abuse, harassment and discrimination at the firm. This is to be voted on at Activision Blizzard's annual shareholder meeting in June.

The aforementioned report would include the number of disputes Activision Blizzard has settled and how much much money has been spent on said settlements. That's on top of the number of as well as the number of complaints of abuse, harassment and discrimination as well as reducing the amount of time spent on resolving complaints. Finally, it would disclose how much employees are paid and how many hours they work.

Activision Blizzard's board has recommended shareholders vote against this proposal.

“The Board believes that, rather than diverting energy and resources toward creating yet another report, we should continue to directly respond to employee concerns,” the company wrote in the filing.

"Focusing all our attention on these concerns is the best way quickly and effectively to create genuine change in our workplace.

"Second, the proposed report itself, even if completed after significant time and expense, would create a set of metrics that are simply not the best measures of how the Company is responding to employee concerns. The Board is committed to measuring the speed and effectiveness of our changes accurately, not based on metrics that are not precisely tailored to our Company’s situation.

"As such, the Company is of the view that continuing to focus its efforts on responding directly to employee concerns and continuing to implement workplace improvements is the best path forward."

Activision Blizzard recently settled a lawsuit with the EEOC for $18 million. In July of last year, California's Department of Fair Employment and Housing filed a lawsuit alleging widespread misconduct at the company.


PCGamesInsider Contributing Editor

Alex Calvin is a freelance journalist who writes about the business of games. He started out at UK trade paper MCV in 2013 and left as deputy editor over three years later. In June 2017, he joined Steel Media as the editor for new site PCGamesInsider.biz. In October 2019 he left this full-time position at the company but still contributes to the site on a daily basis. He has also written for GamesIndustry.biz, VGC, Games London, The Observer/Guardian and Esquire UK.