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NLRB files complaint against Activision Blizzard over illegal surveillance case

NLRB files complaint against Activision Blizzard over illegal surveillance case

The United States' National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has filed a complaint against Activision Blizzard over claims it illegally surveillance employees and violated labour laws.

That's according to IGN, which reports that the NLRB has finished an investigation into the claims filed by the Communications Workers of America (CWA) union, which claimed that Activision Blizzard had illegally surveilled staff during the July 2022 walkouts in protest of the overturning of Roe v Wade. At the time, employees were also seeking a labour-neutrality agreement from the company, too.

The CWA claims that Activision Blizzard surveilled staff "through managers and security" while engaged in protected labour activity. The union also claims that the Call of Duty giant allegedly threatened to cut off access to some internal comms channels "because employees are discussing wages, hours, and working conditions." Finally, the CWA also claims that Activision Blizzard cut access to an all-hands meeting "where employees were discussing wages, hours and working conditions," which the union thought to be a Section 7 violation. The NLRB appears to disagree and has dismissed this charge.

In a post about the charges, Activision Blizzard's chief administrative officer Brian Bulatao said that chat was disabled during all-hands meeting due to reports it " was particularly disruptive after some employees used the chat to disparage the work of the Diablo Immortal team and others." He also claims that the presence of Blizzard management at the July 2022 walkout was the company's comms team – to deal with press – and security to keep things in hand.

"We stand by our Slack and Workplace Integrity policies, and we stand by you and your right to opt-out of channels not directly related to your job function should you choose to," We continue to support employees' rights to express their views and values. you have the right to express those views on public and private company-provided communications channels - but abusive behaviour is never okay."

An official statement from Blizzard says that closing the chat was to protect staff from "toxic workplace behaviour."

“We strongly believe employees shouldn't have to be subjected to insults and put-downs for their hard work – especially on company communications platforms," a spokesperson said.

In the wake of the NLRB's decision, the CWA added: "This egregious behaviour by Blizzard is yet another example of the company using its platforms and tools to coerce and intimidate workers exercising their protected right to organise. These actions, coupled with Activision Blizzard’s illegal firing of workers speaking out about their working conditions and several other unlawful actions, shows a clear pattern to disregard the law in an attempt to silence workers."


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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.