Activision Blizzard has recruited a new chief diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) officer. Kristen Hines will join the company and its senior leadership team on April 25th. She will report to Julie Hodges, the company's chief people officer. Hines most recently led the Global DEI practice at Accenture, where she helped other organizations bolster their DEI strategies and capabilities.

One of Hines' key responsibilities will be to help Activision Blizzard meet its commitment to increase the percentage of women and non-binary people in the workforce by 50 percent over the next five years. In its representation data document for 2021, the company said women made up 24 percent of its workforce. Hines will also work with Activision Blizzard's gaming teams “to ensure diverse and inclusive perspectives are included in game design, including storylines, character development, gameplay and community interaction.”

"In an industry with historical underrepresentation, I’m looking forward to leading the company’s efforts to further build a workplace that values transparency, equity and inclusivity,” Hines said in a statement. “Gaming has amazing potential to connect communities around the world and showcase heroes from all backgrounds. I am looking forward to playing a part in expanding the landscape of talent who brings these compelling experiences to a broad base of players.”

Hines will be tasked with helping improve the workplace culture of Activision Blizzard, which has been under intense scrutiny since last summer. The California Department of Fair Employment and Housing sued the company in July. It accused Activision Blizzard of fostering a "frat boy culture" and alleged there was discrimination against female employees. A wrongful death suit was filed against the publisher last month, as was a sexual harassment and discrimination lawsuit from an individual plaintiff.

Also in March, a judge approved a proposal by Activision Blizzard, which is the subject of a pending $68.7 billion takeover from Microsoft, to set up an $18 million fund to settle a federal lawsuit. The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's suit accused the company of enabling a sexist and discriminatory workplace environment.

Amazon will reportedly object to a recent union election victory at its warehouse in Staten Island, alleging that organizers pressured workers into voting to organize. The Wall Street Journal reported that the company revealed its intention to appeal JFK8’s election in a legal filing released to the public on Thursday. Roughly 55 percent of workers at the JFK8 warehouse voted to join the Amazon Labor Union, the first victory of its kind for Amazon workers in the US. The company has until April 22nd to gather evidence and formally file its objections to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

In the document, Amazon gave a preview of what objections it plans on raising. The company wrote that it believes that the union threatened employees unless they voted to unionize. Some may think this is a fairly ironic move on Amazon’s part, considering NLRB accused the company of threatening employees unless they did the opposite. Amazon also accused the union of “electioneering” or interfering while employees waited in line to vote. It argued that unusually long waits at polling booths led to insufficient voter turnout. The company also believes organizers loitered by the polling area and intimidated voters, even going as far as to threaten immigrant employees with the loss of their rights if they didn’t vote to unionize.

Eric Milner, an attorney who represents the ALU, believes that Amazon’s objections will be dismissed. "To say that the Amazon Labor Union was threatening employees is really absurd," Milner said to Reuters. "The Amazon Labor Union is Amazon employees."

Meanwhile, a separate labor union attempting to organize an Amazon facility in Alabama filed its own objections on Thursday regarding the pending results of its recent rerun election. The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) is accusing Amazon of “countless attempts to intimidate workers” in the Bessemer plant, including firing or suspending workers who supported the union. The results of that election are currently too close to call and will be determined in the coming weeks by an NLRB hearing over several hundred challenged ballots.

“Amazon’s behavior must not go unchallenged, and workers in Bessemer, Alabama must have their rights protected under the law. We urge the NLRB to carefully review our objections and ensure no company, not even with the bottomless pockets of Amazon, is allowed to act above the law,” said RWDSU president Stuart Appelbaum in a statement.

Engadget has reached out to Amazon for comment on both matters, and will update if we hear back. 

Over 50 gig workers have been killed on the job in the United States since 2017, according to a report released today by Gig Workers Rising. Of that figure, nearly two-thirds (34 deaths) occurred this year and in 2021, which may indicate a worrying upward trend. And often, the companies they contracted for do little to compensate their surviving relatives.

“Based on publicly available data more people are getting killed doing gig work each year. App corporations are not doing enough to protect the workers who make their apps run,” wrote a spokesperson for Gig Workers Rising in a message.

The report compiled the 50+ incidents from public documents like news stories, social media, fundraising platforms, police reports, court cases and a database maintained by The Markup of ride-hail driver carjackings. It excludes other kinds of at-work deaths such as "fatal traffic accidents or other causes of injury." And as Gig Workers Rising freely points out, the report is not comprehensive and the "true number is likely to be much greater as gig corporations don’t regularly disclose the number of homicides that occur for people working using their app."

Among the kinds of incidents that were included in the report were fatal carjackings, armed robberies or hate crimes. In many instances, drivers were killed by their own passengers. This includes the cases of Christina Spicuzza, a 38-year old from Pittsburgh and Abdul Rauf Khan, a 71-year old from Springfield, Virginia, who were both the victims of fatal carjacking incidents. The Wall Street Journalreported that many gig workers have quit due to a spike in violent crimes last year.

In many of the cases, the families of the victims were not compensated, according to the report. This is due to the same loophole that precludes most gig workers from receiving guaranteed minimum wage, employee-sponsored healthcare or other job benefits: their status as supposedly independent contractors.

Engadget reached out to a number of gig platforms to ask about their on-the-job insurance policies and will update once we hear back. A number of companies like Uber, Lyft and DoorDash have implemented safety measures like 24/7 law enforcement support teams and discrete emergency assistance buttons. 

“Since day one, we’ve built safety into every part of the Lyft experience. We are committed to doing everything we can to help protect drivers from crime, and will continue to take action and invest in technology, policies and partnerships to make Lyft as safe as it can be," wrote a Lyft spokesperson in a statement. 

DoorDash spokesperson Julian Crowley said the company’s occupational accident insurance covers homicides, and provides survivor payments of up to $150,000 for eligible dependents.

“We were the first national delivery platform to offer occupational accident insurers to Dashers at no cost to them, and with no opt-in or application required, which can support them if they’re injured while providing a delivery on our platform,” wrote Crowley.

While the laws regarding worker death benefits vary greatly from state to state, at minimum they often provide some amount of money for funeral expenses; in New York state, surviving family members are entitled to "two-thirds of the deceased worker's average weekly wage for the 52 weeks prior to the accident." In California, a stipulation in Proposition 22 requires gig companies to provide workers with accidental death insurance.

“My sister lost her life over a Lyft trip that totaled to be 15 dollars and really only totaled that because it wasn’t stopped at the time of arrival but more so after her death," said Alyssa Lewis, whose sister Isabella was killed while on the job last year. "Fifteen dollars that she couldn’t even take with her when losing her life for it.”

Amazon's anti-union stance might spill into the apps for employees. The Intercept says it obtained internal documents detailing a planned worker chat app that, while meant to boost happiness, would include a blocklist focused heavily on silencing pro-union keywords. In addition to forbidding the use of the word "union," it would also block terms like "compensation," "pay raise," "ethics" and even "robots."

Other bans would focus mostly on keeping things positive, such as "rude" and "stupid." Most, however, appear centered on working conditions. Amazon supposedly decided on the words at an upper-echelon meeting in November 2021, when they outlined an app that would encourage "Shout-Outs" and offer digital rewards for providing value to the company. 

The program linked to the app will reportedly launch in April. In a statement to The Intercept, however, Amazon spokeswoman Barbara Agrait said the initiative "has not been approved yet" and might be changed or scrapped.

If the program and its associated app launch, they would come at a tense moment. Amazon warehouse workers in Staten Island just voted to unionize, and those at a Bessemer, Alabama facility just had a highly contested rerun election where both sides accused each other of interference. While this app isn't about to hinder union organizers (they weren't likely to use Amazon-monitored chats), it could underscore the very labor concerns the company doesn't want employees to mention.

Epic Games and Microsoft have wrapped up their campaign to support Ukraine relief efforts through Fortnite after raising an impressive $144 million. Both companies donated their proceeds from the game for the last two weeks to humanitarian causes supporting people affected by the war. The funds will go to Direct Relief, UNICEF, UN World Food Program, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and World Central Kitchen.

The campaign aligned with the start of Fortnite's latest season, meaning that many players were buying V-Bucks to unlock the latest Battle Pass and scoop up new in-game items. Epic and Xbox donated their cuts of gifted Battle Passes, Fortnite Crew subscriptions and gift cards redeemed during that time to relief efforts as well.

After arresting seven alleged members of the hacking group Lapsus$ last week, London police have charged two of them with multiple computer crimes. the teenagers aged 16 and 17 remain in police custody in connection with the investigation. 

"Both teenagers have been charged with: three counts of unauthorized access to a computer with intent to impair the reliability of data; one count of fraud by false representation and one count of unauthorized access to a computer with intent to hinder access to data," the City of London Police said in a news release. "The 16-year-old has also been charged with one count of causing a computer to perform a function to secure unauthorized access to a program. They will both appear at Highbury Corner Magistrates Court this morning (April 1st)."

Lapsus$ claimed to have downloaded 37GB of Microsoft source code for key products like Bing and Cortana, along with mobile apps. They also reportedly compromised the security system of MFA company Okta, forcing the company to admit that it made a mistake in the way it handled the attack. 

One of the teens arrested was reportedly a 16-year-old Oxford resident known as "Breachbase" or "White," who has supposedly made the equivalent of $14 million in Bitcoin. London police have not released any names, however, nothing that the people charged are juveniles and that reporting any identifying information about them is prohibited. 

Amazon spent around $4.3 on consultants last year in an effort to prevent unionization of its warehouses, according to company filings with the US Department of Labor. Workers were required to attend meetings led by the consultants who discussed anti-union talking points ahead of key union votes in Bessemer, Alabama and Staten Island, New York, HuffPost has reported.

Companies are required to disclose financial details when consultants speak directly to workers about unionization. Very few have spent even $1 million on union avoidance over several years, according to a recent report, while Amazon spent multiple times that in just 2021 alone. Some consultants were paid up to $3,200 per day.

The meetings are legal and usually held when employers discover efforts to organize unions. They're called "captive audience meetings" by labor organizers because attendance is normally non-optional. Typically, the consultants will focus on union dues and potential loss of wages due to work stoppages. They also help company's come up with strategies to defeat unions.

Amazon workers recently voted in two union drives in Bessemer and Staten Island. At Bessemer, workers voted 993-875 against unionizing, but 416 votes have been challenged, so the final result is far from established. However, as it stands now, the Staten Island union is currently ahead 1,518 to 1,154 (a margin of 364) votes, with counting set to resume today.

The initial results of a second union election at Amazon's BHM1 warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama have finally come through. Workers have voted against unionization in a closely contested 993-875 vote (with 59 voided votes) out of 6,153 workers eligible to cast a ballot. Turnout appears to have been considerably lower this time around, as more than 3,000 employees cast ballots in the early 2021 vote. However, 416 votes have been challenged — more than enough to change the outcome — so the definitive result might not be available for some time.

The tally brings BHM1 to the possible end of a long and messy saga. Bessemer workers voted against unionization in early 2021, but the National Labor Relations Board ruled that Amazon violated labor laws by allegedly interfering with the vote. The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) accused Amazon of repeatedly trying to intimidate workers through measures like an unauthorized ballot box and anti-union campaign material. While Amazon disputed the claims, the NLRB ultimately ordered a second vote.

The rerun election didn't go smoothly, either. The RWDSU has maintained that Amazon interfered with the second vote by removing pro-union posters, forcing attendance of anti-union meetings and limiting time spent on company grounds to discourage organization. Before the vote, the RWDSU also accused Amazon of illegal retaliation against worker Isaiah Thomas' pro-union efforts. The company has again argued that its actions are legal.

BHM1 was the first major Amazon facility in the US to hold a union vote, but it's no longer the only one. One Staten Island warehouse, JFK8, is already voting on possible unionization, and early vote totals show the grassroots Amazon Labor Union ahead by several hundred votes. Another facility in Staten Island is scheduled to hold its own unionization vote starting in late April. Simply put, there's a growing desire for workers to have a say in their conditions at at Amazon's — whether those efforts succeed, however, remains to be seen.

A former DeepMind employee has accused the company of mishandling a series of serious sexual harassment allegations. In a report published Wednesday, The Financial Times recounts the experience of a former female staff member who alleges she was sexually assaulted twice by a senior researcher at the Google subsidiary. She says her harasser also sent her multiple traumatic documents, including one where he made allusions to raping unconscious women.

DeepMind eventually dismissed the researcher, but not before it subjected his victim to a disciplinary process she argues showed major flaws in how the company handles such incidents. All told, it reportedly took DeepMind seven months to address the complaint, and only did so after the former employee filed an appeal. It then allegedly took another two months before the company finally dismissed her harasser in September 2020.

During that period, the former employee was told she would face “disciplinary” action if she talked about her complaint with colleagues. She was advised not to visit the office where her harasser worked, but her manager, not knowing the full scope of the complaint, repeatedly pushed her to attend meetings at that same building. According to The Times, DeepMind did not place any restrictions on the alleged perpetrator, a claim the company disputes. 

A spokesperson for DeepMind said the firm told the researcher not to contact the staff member in September 2019. The company also disputes a claim the researcher received an award for their work during the time they were being investigated by the company. DeepMind says the award was one meant for the team the alleged perpetrator worked for and was related to a historic research paper.

“According to your own findings, I was subjected to sexual harassment, assault and abuse… I will never be the same person. I have spent almost the entire last year fearing for my safety. There is absolutely… no reason why the investigation was so dysfunctional,” the former employee said in an August 2020 email to DeepMind’s senior leadership.

“Any incident of sexual assault or harassment is abhorrent. DeepMind takes all allegations of workplace misconduct extremely seriously and we place our employees’ safety at the core of any actions we take,” DeepMind told Engadget. “The allegations were investigated thoroughly, and the individual who was investigated for misconduct was dismissed without any severance payments.”

Following the incident, DeepMind told Engadget it implemented a series of policies to change how it investigates such matters. Among other changes, the company says it now communicates more clearly how employees should go about raising concerns, and that it has a better system in place to support workers who complain of harassment and discrimination. It also told The Times it “regrets” the former staff member was provided with “incorrect guidance around breaking confidentiality.”

In a tally with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) this afternoon, Google Fiber customer service workers — jointly employed by Google parent Alphabet and staffing agency BDS Connected Solutions — voted 9 to 1 to form a union. They'll be represented by the Alphabet Workers Union, an arm of the Communications Workers of America.

Workers at the store, which operates out of Kansas City, Missouri, told Engadget back in January that they were feeling left out of important workplace conversations, especially around safety and staffing. 

This story is developing...