[Grisham]

Activision Blizzard is converting all of its temporary and contract quality assurance workers in the US to full-time employees starting on July 1st. Many of the 1,100 workers will receive a pay rise — the minimum hourly rate is going up to $20 per hour as of April 17th. As permanent employees, the workers will receive benefits and can participate in a bonus plan.

The company says bringing those workers on board as staff will bolster its development resources and increase its number of full-time employees by 25 percent. It recently converted nearly 500 other temp and contract roles across its studios to full-time positions.

Here's Activision Blizzard's full statement:

Across Activision Blizzard, we are bringing more content to players across our franchises than ever before. As a result, we are refining how our teams work together to develop our games and deliver the best possible experiences for our players. We have ambitious plans for the future and our Quality Assurance (QA) team members are a critical part of our development efforts.

Therefore, today we announced the conversion of all US-based temporary and contingent QA team members at Activision Publishing (AP) and Blizzard — nearly 1,100 people in total — to permanent full-time employees starting July 1. Additionally, we are increasing the minimum hourly rate for these team members to $20/hr or more effective April 17. These employees also will be eligible to participate in the company's bonus plan and will have access to full company benefits.

This change follows a process that began last year across AP and Blizzard of converting temporary and contingent employees, including 500 at AP's studios, to permanent full-time employees.

Activision Blizzard gives 1,100 QA testers full-time jobs and higher base pay

The move comes amid a unionization effort by QA workers at Raven Software.

www.engadget.com

 

[Snes nes]

but where are the a&q people?

 

[Allnamestakenlol]

That's a lot of testers. Like, damn.

 

[CAPTAIN RAINCOAT]

Imagine if ea had a QA testing department

 

[SpartanN92]

Good. Contract employees are a HUGE problem in the industry due to how quickly they bounce around. It's devastating to work flow at Microsoft for sure.

 

[Grinchy]

$38,400 per year for 1100 employees is $42M per year.

That's some expensive QA testing lol

 

[Calcium]

Good for the testers. Since they are in the mood to throw money around they should hire some competent writers too.

 

[Grisham]

Unionisers at Call of Duty studio Raven are excluded from Activision’s QA pay rise | VGC

“Due to legal obligations under the National Labor Relations Act”…

www.videogameschronicle.com

On Thursday, the publisher announced that all of its US-based QA testers will be converted to full-time employees beginning in July.

The employees will also receive a wage increase to a minimum of $20 per hour.

However, this won't apply to the QA testers at Raven who have been fighting for improved working conditions at the company since last year.

This is "due to legal obligations under the National Labor Relations Act," an Activision Blizzard spokesperson Bloomberg.

As spotted by PC Gamer, the National Labor Relations Act doesn't allow employers to "confer benefits on employees during a union organizing campaign to induce employees to vote against the union."

The group of Raven employees seeking to unionise, which calls itself the Game Workers Alliance, said it was "thrilled" with Thursday's announcement of improved employment conditions for Activision QA staff, but called the decision to exclude it from the upcoming benefits an "attempt to divide workers & undermine our right to unionize".

"The company's assertion that the NLRA prevents @Activision from including Raven QA workers is simply a ploy to punish us for choosing to stand shoulder to shoulder with our fellow workers as @WeAreGWA," it argued.

"Activision's announcement is further evidence of the need for ALL workers at Activision Blizzard to have a protected voice on the job."

Workers at Raven Software went on strike in December in protest of Activision plans to downsize the studio's QA department. They ceased strike action in January after announcing their intention to unionise with the Communication Workers of America.

Activision Blizzard chose not to voluntarily recognise the union, leaving the workers to seek having the union certified through an election conducted by the National Labor Relations Board.

 

[Barnabot]

imo unions only make employer/employee relationship ever harder to manage. you earn less because you have a 3rd party imposing regulations to the employer and also imposing tax to the employee.

The employee always get the short end of the stick in the deal.