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Activision Blizzard to make QA testers full-time employees, increase wages

New reports state that Activision Blizzard will convert its contracted QA workers to full-time and increase their pay.

Donovan Erskine

April 7, 2022 10:40 AM

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Updated April 7 at 3 p.m. PT/6 p.m. ET: It appears that the new pay increases may not going to QA employees of Raven Software, who are currently attempting to unionize.

And here's the catch: Activision will not give raises to Raven QA testers, who are unionizing, "due to our legal obligations under the National Labor Relations Act," the company said in an email seen by Bloomberg News.

Story: https://t.co/fLR90gCyJL

— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) April 7, 2022

The rest of the article remains as originally published.

Activision Blizzard has been under fire over the past year for several reasons, one of them being the way that the company treats its quality assurance workers. This issue was brought into the spotlight late last year when several QA workers were laid off at Raven Software. Amid attempts to unionize, Activision Blizzard will now make its QA testers full-time employees and increase their hourly pay.

This update came from a report made by Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier. According to his sources at the company, Activision Blizzard is making 1,100 of its contracted QA workers full-time employees of the company. In addition, they’ll have their wages raised to “at least” $20 an hour. It’s worth noting that the 1,100 does not include some QA workers that were already full-time employees at Activision Blizzard.

Activision Blizzard VP of corporate communications Jessica Taylor spoke to the news in a statement, as shared by The Verge:

This move comes at a time where QA workers under Activision Blizzard are attempting to unionize. The Game Worker Alliance was formed earlier this year by members of Raven Software and has been fighting for an official union among Acti-Blizz employees. It will be interesting to see how that effort is impacted by today’s news.

Donovan Erskine

News Editor

Donovan is a journalist from Maryland. His oldest gaming memory is playing Pajama Sam on his mom's desktop during weekends. Pokémon Emerald, Halo 2, and the original Star Wars Battlefront 2 were some of the most influential titles in awakening his love for video games. After interning for Shacknews throughout college, Donovan graduated from Bowie State University in 2020 with a major in broadcast journalism and joined the team full-time. He is a huge film fanatic and will talk with you about movies and games all day. You can follow him on twitter @Donimals_