Hundreds of Riot Games employees went on strike against their own studio
About 200 Riot Games employees staged a strike in Los Angeles, publicly condemning the actions of their leadership.
This strike is a consequence of lawsuits between Riot Games and its former employees. Recall that the latter claim that a “culture of harassment” reigns in the studio and sexual discrimination flourishes. This information was confirmed to the Kotaku portal by 28 former and current Riot Games employees last summer. A few months later, a class action lawsuit was filed against the company demanding monetary compensation for moral damage. Riot Games is accused of violating California labor laws, as well as encouraging sexist statements and harassment of studio employees. In addition, the bosses pay them too little (in comparison with the salaries of male colleagues) and in every way hinders their promotion.
Back in the summer of 2018, the top managers of Riot Games announced that they do not accept discrimination in the team. The management did not comment on the subsequent lawsuit, but only noted that they take the charges seriously.
But on April 25, Riot Games filed a petition with the court to block the lawsuits. It turned out that she made sure that employees could not openly hold her accountable. In their employment contracts there is a clause on the so-called “compulsory arbitration”. A week ago, Riot explained what it means by private arbitration:
- With the participation of both parties (i.e. Riot Games and the plaintiff), a neutral arbitrator is appointed to conduct proceedings on the issue of sexual harassment. If one of the parties rejects the candidacy of an arbitrator, it will be necessary to appoint a new one.
- All costs for the arbitrator are covered by Riot Games.
- For the proceedings, the plaintiff can hire a lawyer.
- The plaintiff can openly report the existence of claims against Riot Games.
- The amount of compensation requested by the plaintiff for the damage caused is unlimited.
All of the above means that the resolution of all issues of sexual harassment can only take place out of court. The plaintiffs in the current trial, according to Riot Games, signed employment contracts with an “arbitration clause” in them. So, they had no right to go to court openly.
To draw attention to this problem, the current Riot Games employees announced a protest rally. From 150 to 200 developers came out to the parking lot near the campus with banners and took turns speaking into a megaphone against the internal policy of the company. Kotaku writes about this.
Interestingly, the rally was coordinated with the studio management itself. It allowed the participants of the action to leave their jobs for a few hours and promised not to dismiss them. But even before the strike, company officials announced that they would cancel the “compulsory arbitration”. However, this will affect only new employees, but not current and former ones. The company confirmed all this in a corporate blog.
Although we will not be making changes to our policy during active litigation, last Thursday we announced that we would be changing the approach. As soon as the current litigation is resolved, we will give all new employees the opportunity to opt out of mandatory arbitration on sexual harassment issues.
For the Riot Games staff, this is hardly a victory. Although some of them admitted that last year Riot did take measures to improve the situation in the team, the purpose of the action was to cancel the “arbitration clause” for all employees — former, current, future, as well as contractors.
Their protest did not go unnoticed. As Gamesindustry writes.biz, the strike was broadcast live on the Internet, the hashtag #riotwalkout spread on social networks. Gaming industry workers, members of the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations, as well as the Game Workers Unite organization massively expressed support for the strikers.
History is being written, the future is changing. (...) All this focuses attention on the fact that our industry cannot afford to return to ignoring the needs of workers.
Co-founder of Vlambeer
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