2023 has been a really unhealthy yr for Niantic. The corporate has been below hearth for his or her modifications to distant raids in Pokemon GO, they just lately laid off 230 workers, and the cell recreation has been coping with all kinds of bugs and points. That mentioned, their woes are removed from over, as a result of there’s now a lawsuit filed in opposition to them.
The lawsuit, which is looking for a class-action standing, was filed by an nameless Asian feminine that used to work for Niantic for a couple of years earlier than they grew to become one of many workers that had been just lately laid off. The worker is accusing the corporate of devaluing the work of its feminine workers and girls of colour. Not solely that, however they accuse Niantic of denying their feminine workers and girls of colour equal pay.
The worker says that, regardless of having a $84,000 wage by the tip of the yr, she discovered in “roughly” 2021 {that a} male colleague of hers was being paid extra money, despite the fact that she had extra duties and a better job title than him. By the point she had been laid off, this was nonetheless an issue. Her male colleague was being paid $127,000 per yr as early as 2022, and she or he acquired a increase in spring 2023 which resulted in her making $115,000 per yr. To make issues worse, the feminine worker found that Niantic had posted a mean pay vary for her job title and stage, and she or he noticed that she was being paid greater than $10,000 lower than the underside finish of that vary.
The worker claims that she mentioned her issues with different feminine workers, and sexism and equal pay had been introduced up in Wolfpack, Niantic’s worker assets group for ladies. The feminine worker additionally went to Niantic’s Variety Fairness and Inclusion Director and Principal Individuals Associate to voice her issues, just for each to “clarify” that “they and male higher administration at Niantic had been hostile to her complaints or voiced issues about sexism or sexual bias within the office”. On this similar assembly, there have been additionally executives there, and the feminine worker says that they instructed her that it was due to her talking up concerning the matter to her colleagues that her job evaluations had been being affected and she or he was being paid under the rang. The feminine worker says that they then “instantly unsubscribed” from the Wolfpack group becuase she feared that “her affiliation with Wolfpack would drawback Wolfpack workers or her”.
Lastly, the feminine worker mentions within the lawsuit that higher administration was knowledgeable of a Wolfpack survey. Within the survey, Wolfpack discovered that “many feminine workers seen Niantic as a sexist work tradition that disadvantages feminine workers”. Not solely that, however a majority of respondents “expressed issues about equal pay at Niantic”. After they had been knowledgeable of the survey’s findings, the worker says within the lawsuit that “Niantic’s Chief Advertising Officer, Mike Quigley, required Wolfpack to take away references to Boys Membership and comparable feedback about sexism within the office from their presentation to Wolfpack members concerning the outcomes of the survey”. Wolfpack was them instructed that they couldn’t survey staffers with out approval from higher administration. General, the grievance accuses Niantic of making a “boys membership”. The Verge reached out to Niantic for a remark, however they acquired no quick response.
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