Activision Blizzard CEO takes paycut following scandal

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Activision Blizzard CEO commits to waiving forced arbitration, and a temporary paycut

An employee grouping declare the new plan "a huge win"

Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick has detailed plans for the company to rebuild itself following numerous legal cases and protests over declared harrassment, bigotry, and retaliation at the company. Key points include a policy of zero-tolerance for harassment and an finish to forced abitration in claims of sexual harrassment and discrimination. An employee grouping call this "a huge win". And Kotick himself has volunteered to have a huge pay cut until they achieve their stated goals.

The company's initial response to allegations was so weak and dismissive that over 2000 current and onetime employees signed an open alphabetic character condemning it, and many staged a walkout. Kotick's letter of the alphabet, initially sent to employees and then published online, is improve. He laid out five main points for the new plan:

We are launching a new zero-tolerance harassment policy company-broad

Nosotros volition increment the percentage of women and non-binary people in our workforce by 50% and will invest $250 million to advance opportunities for diverse talent

Based on feedback from employees, we are waiving required arbitration of sexual harassment and bigotry claims

We will continue to increase visibility on pay disinterestedness

We will provide regular progress updates

His letter has more details on the private points, if you're interested, including albeit that their previous disciplinary efforts were insufficient. Many of the other points had been demanded past ABetterABK, a group of employees.

"This is what happens when we work together to create a better future for game devs in our company," ABetterAKB tweeted in response. "Together we will proceed to button for other changes that need to exist made then that we tin make a ameliorate ABK."

The group added, "While today was a huge win for us, we remain vigilant and keep to push for other industry practices that need to alter. We however stand business firm by our demand that the investigation must be done past an unbiased tertiary political party, of which WilmerHale is not i."

"Nosotros keep to push for light to be shed on other manufacture practices, similar crunch, which tin can be especially harmful the health of game devs, and especially the health of disabled and chronically ill game devs," they continued. They also pointed out that the ABetterUbisoft grouping still accept unmet demands.

Kotick's letter said the company "believed we had the systems, policies, and people in place to ensure that our company ever lived upwardly to its reputation as a cracking identify to piece of work. Clearly, in some vitally important aspects, nosotros didn't.

"The guardrails weren't in place everywhere to ensure that our values were beingness upheld," he continued. "In some cases, people didn't consistently feel comfortable reporting concerns, or their concerns weren't ever addressed promptly or properly. People were deeply let down and, for that, I am truly sorry."

Until the company board determine they take met the transformational goals, Kotick says, he'll earn California's lowest legal salary, $62,500. No bonuses or disinterestedness either. Dainty gesture. I'1000 sure he'll go by on that pay: he has reportedly pulled in $461 one thousand thousand in total bounty (including stock) since 2007.