Activision Blizzard Employees Staging Another Walkout, This Time Over the End Of Vaccine Mandates

Activision Blizzard employees are staging another walkout next week, this one over the end of the company-wide vaccine mandate.

The mandate was removed “effective immediately” in an announcement obtained by Kotaku. Activision Blizzard Chief Administrative Office Brian Bulatao cited the desire to return the benefits of “in-person collaboration” in the announcement. Bulatao said that Activision Blizzard is aware of the risks of COVID-19 and that the company would would monitor the situation.

Current and former Activision Blizzard employees quickly reacted to the decision on social media.

“So they’ve decided they just want to let COVID run rampant? I am sure that won’t cause any delays as entire teams get taken down by illness,” former Blizzard designer Kim Acuff Steiner wrote.

COVID-19 cases have waned since the Omicron variant outbreak at the end of 2021. However, the pandemic remains a risk, with many journalists and developers testing positive for COVID-19 following last week’s Game Developers Conference.

An employee spokesperson released a statement to IGN announcing that Activision Blizzard workers would be staging a walkout on Monday over the decision. The full statement follows below:

Due to the new RTO policy around no longer mandating vaccination requirements in regards to the ongoing pandemic, a group of ABK employees will be conducting a walkout on Monday April 4 at 10am PDT. We have 3 demands:

An immediate reversal to lifting the vaccine requirement

Remote work should be offered as a permanent solution

The decision to work remote or in office should be made by each individual employee

We invite gamedevs from ABK and across the industry to participate with us virtually using the hashtags #SickOfThis and #GameWorkersUnite

Activision Blizzard employees have staged multiple walkouts over the past year as the company has grappled with sexual harassment lawsuits, workers rights, and other issues.

IGN has reached out to Activision Blizzard for a statement and will update the story accordingly.

Kat Bailey is a Senior News Editor at IGN as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.

Author: Kat Bailey. [Source Link (*), IGN All]

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