Raven Software's quality assurance staff and other developers are staging an employee walkout. Following the surprise news that Activision had terminated contracts for 30% of their QA contractors last week (effective January 28, 2022), remaining staff are strongly opposed to this decision.
As shared by Axios reporter Stephen Totilo, Raven Software's QA Team, joined by other employees across the company, issued this statement:
The 12 individuals who have been let go so far are considered by their colleagues to be essential to the everyday functioning of the Raven QA team. Several of those who were let go recently relocated to Wisconsin in anticipation of the return to in-person work. They did so without relocation assistance from Raven, due to reassurances from the studio that their workload was consistent.
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Advising they were told "multiple times" by leadership that promotions were coming, Raven's staff confirmed a singular demand, stating: "Every member of the QA team, including those terminated on Friday, must be offered full-time positions."
Since then, Activision has responded to both Totilo, Kotaku and other outlets, stating:
We are converting approximately 500 temporary workers to full-time employees in the coming months. Unfortunately, as part of this change, we also have notified 20 temporary workers across studios that their contracts would not be extended.
Unsurprisingly, that's not placated the QA Team, who called the terminated staff "essential to the everyday functioning of the Raven QA team." As a reminder, this news comes amidst ongoing discrimination and harassment lawsuits against Activision Blizzard. We'll keep you informed as we learn further details.