Nearly one thousand Blizzard Entertainment employees have compiled a detailed list of requests to be presented to management regarding fair pay, more sick and vacation time, promotion changes, and overall revisions to compensation for customer service and quality assurance departments. With all of this going on, could a formal union be within sights as well?
According to Bloomberg News, the list was compiled on a Blizzard Slack channel with more than 870 members. Blizzard has already responded and affirmed that it would review the list and consider changes to current levels of compensation. Without a doubt, this is one of the most important developments in the video gaming industry in years and represents a potential positive shift in how employees are treated.
The news comes less than a week after it was revealed that employees have been sharing their salary information in a spreadsheet in response to ongoing dissatisfaction with levels of compensation and Blizzard’s compensation levels relative to other developers, with some agreeing that only a move to another developer could lead to any real increase in pay.
All of this comes at a time when CEO Bobby Kotick is one of the highest paid CEOs in the world, having received a compensation package in 2019 worth around $40 million in base salary and performance-based bonuses.
Further inflaming the socioeconomic issues that are clearly a concern for many employees at Blizzard is the Q2 2020 earnings call for the company from August 4, which reported that revenue was up 36% over last year from $1.4 billion to 1.93 billion.
With Blizzard’s strong performance year after year, and last year’s unexpected and demoralizing termination of 800 employees, a breaking point must surely be approaching between workers and management.
Following the layoff of those 800 employees, Game Workers Unite International and the Solidaire Informatique union issued a joint press release relating to 134 of those individuals who were based in France on May 29, 2019. The two groups offered their support to any workers interested in challenging the layoffs in French Labor Court, Tribunal, or by other means.
On June 18, 2019, former American Democratic presidential contender Bernie Sander tweeted his support, encouraging those within the video game industry who to unionize in an effort to acquire the power of collective bargaining, something that Blizzard’s employees could surely use to obtain compensation for all of their hard work.
For now, it is not clear exactly what is going to happen with the employee’s list of requests. The creation of the spreadsheet comparing salaries among employees came about after Blizzard promised to review compensation levels, with many workers feeling that this was little more than lip service without any genuine effort to come through.
If things continue as is, it would not be surprising if we begin to hear Blizzard’s staff calling for formal unionization.
Source: bloomberg.com
READ NEXT: Study Finds That Sony Phones Depreciate Fastest, But iPhones Retain Value
