Activision is converting 1,100 U.S. contract/temp workers to full-time. Their minimum salary will increase to $20/hr, and they will receive full company benefits.
Raven QA workers who opted to unionize will not be included. Activision Blizzard said the change is a continuation of a process that began in 2021 and that Raven Software staff would not be included due to “legal obligations under the National Labor Relations Act.”
Sara Steffens, Raven Software’s representative and secretary-treasurer of the Communications Workers of America, called out Activision Blizzard on the exclusion.
“Make no mistake, all credit for Activision Blizzard’s latest move to give all temporary and contingent QA team members full-time employment and a raise should go to the workers who have been organizing, mobilizing and speaking out,” said Steffens. “It’s especially galling then that Activision has excluded Raven Software QA workers, who have been at the forefront of this effort, from these benefits. The company’s assertion that the National Labor Relations Act prevents them from including Raven workers is clearly an effort to divide workers and undermine their effort to form a union.”
“This conversion of nearly 1,100 QA workers at Activision and Blizzard does not have any relation to the petition pending at Raven studio,” an Activision Blizzard spokesperson responded. “The Raven situation is limited to Raven. The testers whose contracts weren’t extended were welcome then, and now, to apply for any jobs at the company.”
COO Josh Taub sent an email to staff about Call of Duty’s release schedule changing from annual to “always-on” to explain the decision to grow the company workforce. It will grow by 25% due to the conversion of temp and QA staff. They will provide additional support for the franchise’s service game model, and more QA support would come from external partners, he said.
Sources: Bloomberg, Kotaku, GamesIndustry.biz
Discussion (4 replies)
Join Discussion →Nice to get rolled up under the Microsoft Pension Plan.
So WAIT Activision was paying QA testers LESS than 20 dollars an hour on average? Wow...
Contract work can really suck. My guess is the "contract" was not T&M - it was some static guideline for a static amount of payment, which resulted in a really pathetic hourly rate if you broke it down. And of course, it's contracted out so you don't have to provide benefits, insurance, or anything else - it's just a purchase order that you have to cut.
Contractors can do well for themselves, but it's really easy to wind up on the short end of that stick if you don't stand up for yourself.
As a person who has done many years of IT contract work... I wanted to correct this statement.
INDEPENDENT contractors can do well for themselves.
BUT you have to build up a client list first. Doing W2 contracting someone else is making the money and it isn't you.