The last few weeks have seen a huge windfall directed at Ubisoft, following a mountain of accusations relating to sexual harassment and the creation of a toxic work environment. Several high-profile executives within the organizations have been dismissed or have left of their own accord, and now it looks as though there is more trouble for the company on the way, as France-based union Solidaires Informatique is preparing a collective lawsuit.
The announcement seeks to target the entire organization’s culture of toxic behavior, and invites “the victims of the Ubisoft group’s actions, associations, and any organization wishing to help…lead by Maude Beckers, a lawyer specialized in labor law and discrimination and supported by Solidaires Informatique.”
The announcement goes on to state that “the repeated acts of harassment and sexual assault, sexist acts, and discrimination…must be explained and repaired.” From there, the main idea is presented with reference to a comment previously made by a high-ranking member of HR, “It seems that there is a company policy that values its profits before the health and safety of its employees. Let us remember the words of the former HR director Mrs. Cornet: ‘Yves [Guillemot] is OK with toxic management, as long as the results of these managers exceed their toxicity level.”
This comes at a time when Guillemot is doing everything he can to dodge the specifics of exactly what he knew what happening within Ubisoft, and when. Financial analyst Ken Rumph then presented the issue perfectly during a company results call, breaking down the situation into one of three options for Guillemot.
Rumph laid out the three possible options, “Either as CEO you didn’t know this was happening which was not great. Or, you perhaps didn’t know enough and should have asked more, maybe that’s the answer. Or you knew, which of course would not be good. Those are my possibilities - you may answer the question differently. But I’d like to ask what would be the answer to your question of responsibility as CEO?"
Guillemot then answered the question that might prove problematic for any manner of class action lawsuit, stating that, “Each time we have been made aware of this conduct we have made, actually, tough decisions and we made sure those decisions had a clear and positive impact. It has now become clear that certain individuals betrayed the trust I placed in them and did not live up to Ubisoft’s shared values.”
The answer meant to deflect responsibility from himself, but it is clear that this should not be possible. The leader of any organization as large as Ubisoft cannot simply pass off the effects of systematic abuse, and even if the company’s shareholders accept that explanation, it would be doubtful that any court would.
For now, the formation of a class action lawsuit is still in its early preparatory stages, and we will have to wait and see what comes from it.
Source: solidairesinformatique.org, eurogamer.net
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