Former Activision Blizzard staffer brings sexual harassment lawsuit against company

pcgamesinsider.biz:

Content warning: Harassment

Yet another lawsuit has filed against Activision Blizzard alleging a culture of harassment.

As reported by Kotaku, the case has been brought by an unidentified former female worker, referred to as Jane Doe, who claims that her former manager, Miguel Vega, sexually harassed her. The lawsuit details how Doe and Vega initially were friends, but this ended when Doe met her husband. Afterwards, Vega helped her get a role at Activision Blizzard.

After that, Vega repeatedly sexually harassed Doe and, during meetings “abused, belittled and insulted Ms. Doe, telling her that her ideas were terrible and that she was failing ‘a job a monkey could do’.”

The case has been brought against both Vega and Activision Blizzard, for allegedly not doing anything when Doe complained about Vega.

"Activision Blizzard’s failure to curb sexist and harassing conduct emboldened manager Miguel Vega to abuse, belittle and insult Ms. Doe by making comments to her about oral sex, masturbation and orgasms, threatening her job if she would not consent to sex, mocking her breasts, and commenting on other female employees’ attractiveness," the case said.

"Mr. Vega also repeatedly threatened to expose a compromising photo of Ms. Doe."

In a statement, Activision Blizzard spokesperson Rich George said: "We take all employee concerns seriously. When the plaintiff reported her concerns, we immediately opened an investigation, and Mr. Vega was terminated within 10 days. We have no tolerance for this kind of misconduct."

This comes in the wake of a damning lawsuit brought against Activision Blizzard by California's Department of Fair Employment and Housing last year, which detailed a "frat boy" working culture.