He called the harassment reports fictitious and false, but he seems to be living in a dream world.

The Communication Workers of America (CWA) union has condemned the allegations made by Bobby Kotick, the former CEO of Activision Blizzard. Kotick said that reports of harassment at the publisher are false. Kotick spoke about this on the Grit podcast, saying that the petition signed by 1,300 employees to remove him from his management position was a fabrication, and suggested that the CWA initiated the complaints after it began investigating technology and losing members at a very dramatic rate.

In July 2021, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing filed a lawsuit against Activision Blizzard, accusing the company of fostering a culture of harassment and discrimination against women. A few months later, in November, the Wall Street Journal reported that Kotick had known about sexual misconduct at Activision Blizzard for years. In May 2023, Kotick blamed “outside forces” and union supporters for the company’s image problems, rather than a toxic workplace culture that has spawned numerous sex discrimination lawsuits from former employees and state and federal agencies, and in December Kotick announced he was leaving his post after 30 years… Let’s look at the CWA statement sent to RPS:

“Bobby Kotick’s comments on a podcast glorifying billionaires are both insulting and unsurprising to the Activision workers who spoke out about the harassment they faced. Fortunately for workers, Kotick is gone and thousands of workers have organized unions with CWA without intimidation or interference and now have a voice on the job. Bobby Kotick’s claims in the podcast about “bogus lawsuits” are false. In 2021, Activision agreed to an $18 million settlement with the EEOC following a lawsuit alleging that Activision sexually harassed and discriminated against its employees. Bobby Kotick himself issued a press release apologizing for the inappropriate behavior that occurred under his watch. In addition to the settlement money, Activision also agreed to provide anti-harassment and anti-discrimination training, expand mental health counseling services for its employees, and provide victim-specific relief, as outlined in the EEOC’s March 3, 2022 press release. Subsequently, in 2023, Activision reached a $54 million settlement with the California Department of Civil Rights (formerly known as the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing, as Kotick mentions in the podcast) for workplace discrimination against women and pay inequities.

Our unions were born out of the very real and harmful way that management responded when these situations were brought to their attention. Our company’s leaders did not protect us and often made the situation worse or directly perpetuated the harm. So we decided to stand up for ourselves and make our company better, a place where we truly live our core values and look out for each other. A common misinformation tactic used by companies during a union campaign is to claim that a union is a third party that comes in and makes changes. This is not true. The workers are the union. We are not a third party looking for companies to exploit. We are workers with a vested interest in making our company the best it can be,” the statement said.

So Kotick really does seem detached from reality…

Source: Gamesindustry, RPS