Activision Blizzard prods shareholders to vote against harassment report proposal

It’s almost staggering how little Activision Blizzard’s Board of Directors have actually done to address sexual harassment and toxicity in the company. Unfortunately, that doesn’t appear to be changing anytime soon and, on the contrary, Activision Blizzard’s executives appear to be actively fighting against further accountability and oversight at the company. Following a list of proposals to be voted on at an upcoming annual shareholder meeting, Activision Blizzard’s leadership advised shareholders to vote against one that would demand the company prepare a report of its efforts to prevent abuse, harassment, and discrimination.

Activision Blizzard’s advisement against the above proposal comes amid a list of proposals recently submitted in a filing for voting ahead of its annual shareholder meeting, as reported by Axios. Five total proposals were submitted for the upcoming vote. Among them, Activision Blizzard’s leadership were in favor of election of directors, ratifying Activision Blizzard’s current accounting firm, and further compensation of its executives. The company voiced its dissent of two proposals including nomination of an employee representative to its board and a report on what the company is doing to prevent further discrimination and harassment within its workplace.

Activision Blizzard's executive response to vote proposals at its upcoming annual shareholder meeting continue to show disregard of employee wellbeing while attempting to reward its board of directors, despite their failures.

In its response to the latter proposal above, Activision Blizzard’s leadership opined that such a report would be a waste of resources and time.

It’s no secret at this point that the Activision Blizzard Board, and especially CEO Bobby Kotick, have been ineffective in answering to the various lawsuits and allegations going on. While many firings took place in 2021, including that of Blizzard’s previous president, Kotick remained in his role despite allegedly claiming he’d resign if the matters weren’t resolved quickly. Allegations even painted Kotick as a contributor to the toxic workplace, protector of known abusers, and liar who put whistleblowers within the company on blast under the name of the company’s Chief Compliance Officer, Frances Townsend.

Activision Blizzard has also been active in attempting to bust employee organization within the company, using raises to divide QA workers among those organizing alongside Raven Software and those who did not take part in it. While arguably egregious in light of its situation, it should come as little surprise at this point that Activision Blizzard is in favor of rewarding its executives and curbing employee power within the company.

Nonetheless, the Activision Blizzard annual shareholder meeting comes in June 2022 and these proposals are locked in for voting. It will be interesting to see what comes of them. Stay tuned here at Shacknews as we continue to follow this story for further updates.