Activision Blizzard to convert temporary QA testers to full-time with pay boost

gamesradar.com:

Activision Blizzard has announced that it'll convert all US-based temporary QA testers to permanent full-time positions and raise the minimum wage to $20 per hour. This comes just a few months after QA testers at Call of Duty: Warzone studio Raven Software staged a walkout and subsequently began unionizing.

The transition, which goes into effect April 17, will move approximately 1,100 temporary employees to permanent contracts and boost Activision Publishing's total full-time workforce by 25%. An Activision Blizzard spokesperson said that both Activision Publishing and Blizzard Entertainment will still bolster their QA teams with "external partner support" when "workload spikes and exceeds the team's bandwidth."

In January, employees at Raven Software formed the Game Workers Alliance (GWA) with help from Communication Workers of America (CWA) following a nearly 8-week strike in protest of the sudden layoff of 12 temporary Raven Software QA testers. Activision Blizzard has refused to recognize the union, but the group is moving forward with plans, recently filing for a union election through the National Labor Relations Board and sending an email to Microsoft asking for its support. In response, Microsoft's corporate vice president and general counsel, Lisa Tanzi, clarified that Microsoft "will not stand in the way" of unionization efforts, stopping short of committing to recognizing the union.

GamesRadar was provided two internal emails sent to employees this morning. One, from Activision Publishing chief operating officer Josh Taub, starts off by acknowledging a major shift in Call of Duty's development and release model.

"During the last two years, Call of Duty has expanded and evolved. Our development cycles have gone