Hoo boy. Just when it was starting to look like the seemingly interminable saga of Riot’s sexual harassment and gender discrimination scandal couldn’t get any stormier, new developments go and throw even more fuel on the fire.
You may recall that last November, two Riot employees filed a class-action lawsuit against the League of Legends developer, alleging that the studio “violated California’s Equal Pay Act and law against gender-based discrimination at the workplace.” Now, Riot has filed motions to prevent those employees from taking legal action and force them to accede to private arbitration.
According to a this week’s report from Kotaku, the motion claims that in signing their employment contracts with Riot, the employees in question agreed to arbitration clauses that “force staff to take their complaints to private arbitration, an extra-legal system without a jury or a judge, rather than pursuing legal action.”
In response to these claims, the employees’ attorney, Ryan Saba, wrote in a press release, “Today’s actions only serve to silence the voices of individuals who speak out against such misconduct and demonstrate that the company’s words were no more than lip service.” He also told Kotaku that “he plans to fight the forced arbitration” and that “he believes there is precedent for obtaining a jury trial even when parties involved have signed arbitration clauses.”
