Allegations of Riot Games gender discrimination have resulted in an investigation being undertaken by the state of California. The California Department of Fair Employment and Housing has stated that they are filing an investigation enforcement suit against the developer/publisher of games like League of Legends and lesser-known titles like Stonehearth. This investigation enforcement suit will be looking into allegations that the company has engaged in gender discrimination.
According to Kotaku, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing is requesting that the state’s courts compel the company to provide information on employee pay information so they can investigate the alleged Riot Games gender discrimination.
“[The California Department of Fair Employment and Housing] has broad authority to investigate potential violations of California’s civil rights laws similar to grand jury proceedings,” said DFEH Director Kevin Kish in a press release. “When companies fail to cooperate voluntarily with our investigations, including with our investigative discovery, DFEH will exercise its right to seek assistance from the courts. Doing so ensures our investigations are informed by relevant evidence and completed without unnecessary delay.”
The DFEH says that Riot Games has failed to provide them with “adequate information” to properly complete their investigation. Riot Games, meanwhile, provided the following statement on the matter to Kotaku:
We’ve been in active conversations with the DFEH since its inquiry began. Investigations like this can arise when there have been allegations of workplace disparity and we’ve been cooperating in good faith with the DFEH to address its concerns. During this time, we’ve promptly responded to the DFEH’s requests, and have produced over 2,500 pages of documents and several thousand lines of pay data so far. We’ve also made several recent requests that the DFEH participate in a call with us to address their requests. To date, these requests have been unanswered, so we’re frankly disappointed to see the DFEH issue a press release alleging that we’ve been non-cooperative. We’re confident that we’ve made substantial progress on diversity, inclusion, and company culture, and look forward to continue demonstrating this to the DFEH.
Unsurprisingly, the Riot Games gender discrimination allegations have boiled down to a sort of “he said, she said” situation. We’re sure to find out more concrete details in the coming weeks and months as this case heads to the courtroom.
