Employee rights are under question at Activision Blizzard after the company fired 190 of its employees last year, and its CEO still managed to gain more than $200 million in bonuses in the same time frame. Seems like the company has done pretty darn good for the executives but couldn’t manage to score the employee basic salaries.
The company laid off a significant amount of employees only in the last week, and in contrast, the CEO is set to receive a hefty amount. It is a true example of earning good profits, but not to let the effect trickle down to the hardworking employees. This criticism comes from both the general public as well as the CtW Investment Group that aims to hold companies accountable for “irresponsible and unethical corporate behavior and excessive executive pay.”
The fired employees got $200 in Battle.net gift cards. This farewell handshake to the employees seemed more like a formality rather than supporting them until they got hold of another job.
The company is famous for having received the biggest awards in the gaming industry. Activision Blizzard has developed many successful games, but two of its most famous and hit IPs are Call of Duty and World of Warcraft. After its merger in 2013, the company started to grow and expand even more and developed games, including Overwatch making its way to the esports category. However, Activision has now fired most of its employees from the esports and live events, so it appears this initiative was rather short-lived.
Activision’s CEO Bobby Kotick has received these bonuses in the past whenever the company hit its profit targets. These profits just got on increasing with the pandemic and its effects all over the globe. The gaming industry bloomed like never before. The effect trickled down to Activision Blizzard, increasing the company’s stock price exponentially. The previous year saw the company’s stock price reach $100 per unit and later settled at $92 until now.
Activision’s pay inequalities have been in question earlier as well, where higher executives have been receiving numerous bonuses, and the hardworking employees were laid off at a surprising rate. The company called-off its entire french office, resulting in many people losing their jobs, alongside it laid-off another 800 employees from its offices elsewhere. Activision had shown such a ruthless policy towards its employees when it enjoyed its record sales, with many now contesting against the company.
Activision has really gone under the belt with this one, earning whopping high profits, paying millions to the executives, and laying-off the hard workers, that too in the time when the world’s economy is floating at its record lows. However, the gaming industry doesn’t belong to that category, and Activision terminating its staff marks a selfish move.