On Feb. 28, the Communications Workers of America filed charges against Activision on the grounds that the company violated laws by firing two QA testers.
After Activision announced that all workers are to return to work from offices on Feb. 14, employees openly criticized the company thanks to increasing living costs. Two QA testers protested the return to the office environment to such an extent they used strong language and were fired.
“Two QA testers expressed their outrage using strong language. In response, management set up disciplinary meetings where both workers were fired,” the CWA said.
Although the use of strong and inappropriate language toward superiors could be justified as a valid reason for being laid off, CWA said the “use of outbursts and strong language in the context of concerted activity by employees was protected by the National Labor Relations Board.”
On top of this, the CWA argues that these firings were conducted without a presence of a coworker and every request to have a coworker witness the meeting was denied.
According to Kotaku, the CWA filed charges directly against Activision’s CEO Bobby Kotick and the CWA hopes to put an end to Activision’s long history of mistreating its employees.
“For far too long, Activision has gotten away with treating its employees, especially QA testers, like disposable work horses. Firing two employees for joining with their co-workers to express concern around hasty return to office policies is retaliation, point blank,” CWA secretary-treasurer Sara Steffens explained.
Update March 1 11:20am CT: Two Activision spokespeople provided the following statements to Dot Esports: “Protesting doesn’t mean having the right to abuse, harass, or use slurs against colleagues. We don’t tolerate that kind of behavior and we’re disappointed the CWA is advocating for it.”
“The company is focused on building a culture of inclusiveness. We have a workplace Code of Conduct policy that has been consistently shared with employees, and when that policy is clearly violated, we take appropriate disciplinary action. Using abusive, harassing, or threatening language toward colleagues is unacceptable, and we are disappointed that the CWA is advocating for this type of behaviour.”
