The bad news surrounding the developer studio Riot Games just keeps coming. The League of Legends creators have been sued by female employees for alleged discrimination and now a strike is supposedly looming.
Where is the information from? The site Waypoint has received news from the internal Slack of Riot Games. It mentions that a strike has been on the horizon at Riot Games for some time and the mood has intensified in recent days.
A response from Angela Roseborough, some sort of equality officer at Riot Games, has also been made public through Waypoint.
What is the lawsuit about? In Summer 2018, a report about the work culture at the LoL developer Riot Games was published. This report spoke of sexism in the workplace. Especially women reportedly suffered under a macho culture that the tech company cultivated.
In November, two female employees of Riot Games filed a lawsuit for alleged discrimination against their employer.
However, it is said that there is a clause in the employment contracts of Riot Games that prohibits employees from suing their employer. Allegedly, employees commit to resolving disputes internally.
The lawyer of the two women now wants to take action against this clause. According to him, employees are silenced by such measures and announcements about changes in work culture are nothing more than lip service.
A strike looms
This is how the employees are reacting: A non-specified number of employees from Riot Games plan to strike on Monday, May 6, according to the news that Waypoint received. The employees feel poorly treated and “ignored”.
ohnoitslubu comments: “They did not fire the people at the top who are responsible for all this. And now they expect everything to be fine because they explained for the 17th time that it will get better?”
Furthermore, many do not understand why Riot’s COO Scott Gelb is still working in the company. He is reportedly one of those who behaved particularly inappropriately and shows very little respect for colleagues.
This is what the company says about it: Riot Games is aware that a strike is looming. Therefore, they are offering employees talks to discuss the issues. Anyone interested should sign up on a list. The talks are to be held in a small, preferably private setting.
Riot Games promises improvement and wants to implement changes in the corporate culture. But the company has claimed this before.
Fans stand behind the Riot employees
This is why the employees are unhappy: The employees find the proposal from Riot Games insufficient.
The employees prefer to stand together to represent their position as a group.
How do the fans react? Discussions about the situation are taking place on Reddit. The fans of Riot Games are siding with the employees. Many find a clause in the employment contract that prohibits employees from going to court unacceptable.
Furthermore, some see the problem in the management.
ohnoitslubu comments: “They did not fire the people at the top who are responsible for all this. And now they expect everything to be fine because they explained for the 17th time that it will get better?”
