Activision Blizzard to Convert 1,100 Temporary Contract Workers to Full Time Employees

wowhead.com:

Activision Blizzard will be converting 1,100 quality assurance workers from temporary contracts to full time employees, while also increasing their salary to a minimum of $20 per hour. However, as reported by Bloomberg, the recently unionized members of Raven Software QA will not be eligible for the new benefits, as “due to legal obligations under the National Labor Relations Act, we are prohibited from making new kinds of compensation changes at Raven at this time." Statements from ATVI VP of Corporate Communications Jessica Taylor, Head of Blizzard Mike Ybarra, and ATVI Publishing COO Josh Taub were shared in reports by The Verge and Polygon.

This is the third round of recent compensation improvements for temporary contract workers at Activision Blizzard. Last November, pay and holiday time off benefits were expanded to include a new minimum wage of $17/hour and additional sick days, while some 500 temporary contract workers were promoted to full time positions in December.

These benefits seemingly came at a cost however, as 20 other temporary contracts were not renewed — the majority of which coming from Raven Software's Quality Assurance department, which organized a walkout to protest the dismissals, followed by the formation of the Game Workers Alliance union. A vote with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) regarding whether or not the union will be recognized is still pending.

We are converting approximately 500 temporary workers to full-time employees in the coming months. Unfortunately, as part of this change, we also have notified 20 temporary workers across studios that their.