Activision Blizzard, the embattled gaming giant that Microsoft recently agreed to buy for nearly $69 billion, is being sued by the family of an employee who died by suicide, with the family blaming the woman’s death on sexual harassment and claiming that a supervisor then lied to detectives about his relationship with her, according to a copy of the complaint obtained by The Washington Post.
The complaint, dated Thursday and filed by the parents of Kerri Moynihan, a 32-year-old finance manager at Activision Blizzard when she was found dead during a company retreat in 2017, claims that sexual harassment was a “significant factor” leading to her death.
“Having failed in multiple attempts to escape to a new job in a different department, Doe says she was eventually offered another role with a lower status and a significant salary decrease, after complaining directly to ex-Blizzard president J. Allen Brack.”
Pretty much Rule #1 in handling employee complaints is not to take negative job actions against the complainant as a “solution.” This is horrible management, full stop.
If you want to drink the women’s breast milk and play grab ass at work all day or whatever and one of them complaints, you don’t demote them, you move them to a job that pays slightly more but they hate, so the problem resolves itself when they eventually quit.
The EEOC, a federal agency, and the DFEH, a state agency, share jurisdiction over workplace sexual harassment cases, … and concerns that if the EEOC were to settle with Activision Blizzard on a federal level, it could bar the DFEH from pursuing further damages at the state court level.
“The DFEH will continue to vigorously prosecute its action against Activision in California state court," DFEH spokesperson Fahizah Alim said in a statement. "In recent weeks, DFEH defeated Activision’s request that the Court dismiss DFEH’s case, and DFEH has sought documents and other evidence of sexual harassment, discrimination and retaliation violations over many years by Activision. The Court has set a trial date in February 2023.”
