Activision Blizzard urges shareholders to vote against New York's proposed annual abuse report
James Batchelor
Editor-in-Chief
Tuesday 3rd May 2022
The State of New York is proposing that Activision Blizzard prepare a report on how it's handling abuse, harassment and discrimination within its ranks -- but the publisher has urged its shareholders to vote against this.
In a notice ahead of its annual meeting in June, spotted by Axios, the company says the proposal was submitted by New York State Common Retirement Fund, and calls for Activision Blizzard to prepare "an annual public report describing and quantifying the effectiveness and outcomes of Company efforts to prevent abuse, harassment and discriminations against protected classes of employees."
The report would be expected to disclose:
Activision Blizzard's board of directors unanimously recommends that shareholders vote against this proposal, adding: "While the Board appreciates hearing the perspectives of our shareholders, we do not believe this proposal is in the best interests of the company or its shareholders."
Explaining its reasoning, the board posited that "diverting energy and resources toward creating yet another report" would be better spent "[continuing] to directly respond to employee concerns."
"Focusing all our attention on these concerns is the best way quickly and effectively to create genuine change in our workplace," the company wrote.
"Second, the proposed report itself, even if completed after significant time and expense, would create a set of metrics that are simply not the best measures of how the Company is responding to employee concerns.
"The Board is committed to measuring the speed and effectiveness of our changes accurately, not based on metrics that are not precisely tailored to our Company's situation."
The report would not involve
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