In an article posted via their Twitter account on Wednesday evening, Bungie, developers of the Destiny series, announced that they are removing the mandatory arbitration clause from all employee contracts. This clause means that any party with a dispute cannot take their complaint to the courts and must instead resolve it outside of court through arbitration procedures.
Bungie decided to remove the clause due to concerns that arbitration ‘may not be the fairest way’ to resolve employee complaints. The decision is particularly worthy of note in the context of the ongoing Activision Blizzard controversy and lawsuit. One of the demands of Activision Blizzard employees during the walkout at the end of July was an end to mandatory arbitration clauses in their contracts, something that the studio has not honoured.
‘We can do better’
The Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) update, written by the CEO of Bungie, Pete Parsons, also features further information about current and upcoming efforts to improve the studio’s workplace culture. These include the hiring of new staff specifically related to D&I, including a D&I Director; the addition of an unbiased third-party complaints channel alongside their existing options; and actions to review their hiring process to encourage women and members of Underrepresented Communities to apply to vacancies.
Bungie hopes to open an ‘honest and transparent’ conversation, in the words of Parsons, in order to improve employee experiences within the video games industry as a whole. Parsons also notes the importance of acknowledging past errors and making the effort to repair any harm that has been done, if possible.
The statement was followed by another article around two hours later, which introduced the studio’s latest Inclusion Club, Accessibility at Bungie.
Words by Mia Chitty
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