Last November, former PlayStation IT security analyst Emma Majo claimed Sony “wilfully violated” labour laws by “intentionally, knowingly, and/or deliberately paying women less than men for substantially equal or similar work”. As well as “lower pay levels”, women were “denied promotions”, Majo alleged, saying that these “discriminatory employment practices, policies, and procedures are centrally established and implemented at the highest levels of Sony”. In response, Sony has said it “categorically denies” the allegations made in the proposed class action suit, and has filed for it to be dismissed (thanks, Axios). “Despite the sweeping breadth of her lawsuit, the allegations in which SIE categorically denies, [Majo] fails to plead facts to support either her individual claims or the claims of the broad-based classes of women she seeks to represent,” Sony’s rebuttal reads. “[She] fails to identify a single policy, practice or procedure at SIE that allegedly formed the basis of any widespread intentional discrimination or had a discriminatory impact on women.” In her claims, Majo named specific situations with specific people. One named manager, for example, was said to ignore requests sent by female staff while responding to “virtually identical” requests sent by men. Sony has said Majo’s “widespread claims of harassment are based solely on unactionable allegations of run-of-the-mill personnel activity.” Majo has said she submitted a statement on the company’s alleged gender bias last year, and then soon after was told she had been fired. The proposed PlayStation lawsuit follows the reporting of workplace harassment at companies across the video games industry, with Activision Blizzard, Ubisoft and Paradox all under the spotlight.
