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More than 150 employees of developer Riot Games took part in a walkout yesterday, protesting the company's recent forced arbtration policies after a turbulent period of lawsuits and reports coming out of the LA-based developer of PC game League of Legends.
The walkout came about after Riot filed motions last month to prevent two gender discrimination cases – following on from last year's gender discrimnation lawsuits that hit the company on the heels of an investigation into purported long term sexist culture at the company from Kotaku – stating that the plantiffs had signed forced arbitration agreements that would prevent them from proceeding with the lawsuits.
An initial outcry from Riot employees threatening a mass walkout resulted in this forced arbitration being walked back upon in a statement released by the company, but according to them would not be able to be resolved until after the current cases are settled.
In a public FAQ document on the walkout, those organising said they were continuing with the walkout, which took place on Monday evening, because 'We need a firm commitment to when “moving forward” will happen. The D&I timeline presented today does some work on contextualizing that, but doesn’t address the issue at hand. Current Rioters are actively being forced into arbitration, and while we have been given unclear answers as to why due to open litigation, leadership has committed to continue to deny them the right to choose.'
'We are calling for Riot leaders to end forced arbitration in cases of harassment and discrimination in all past, current, and future contracts for all employees, including contractors. This includes withdrawing the motion for forced arbitration in active suits.'
Whether the walkout will prove succesful is still to be seen, but at the end of yesterday's walkout the organisers have said (as per Kotaku UK) that 'if Riot management doesn’t make any sort of commitment on forced arbitration by May 16 – the date of the next Riot Unplugged meeting – she and others involved with the walkout will take further action.'
