What you need to know
- Eight women have come forward to add their statements to a previously-filed lawsuit against PlayStation, Axios is reporting.
- Former IT security employee Emma Majo filed a lawsuit back in November, stating "Sony tolerates and cultivates a work environment that discriminates against female employees."
- The women describe a "range of behaviors" across multiple U.S. offices.
Eight former and current employees of PlayStation have added their statements to a previously-filed lawsuit concerning sexist treatment and gender discrimination at the video game company, Axios reported.
One statement from Marie Harrington, a veteran at PlayStation and Sony Online Entertainment, noted a lack of female representation in senior positions. In an internal email, she cited a New York Times article about Nike and said, “Can we address this before PlayStation has its own national news article?”
Kara Johnson, a former program manager, wrote “I believe Sony is not equipped to appropriately handle toxic environments."
Reporter Stephen Totilo said he didn't have the room to write down all of the allegations, but added in a tweet that one woman counted the number of times she was interrupted in a meeting. (It was 12-15, in case you were wondering.)
There's a lot in the statements of the eight women who've come forward, more than I could fit in an Axios story. An account of an all-male gender diversity panel, of a women who put a checkmark in a notebook every time she was interrupted in a meeting (12-15 times per meeting).March 9, 2022
The lawsuit was originally filed back in November. In the original filing, Emma Majo, a former IT security analyst at PlayStation, alleged that women at the company were victims of gender discrimination when it came to pay, advancement, and general behavior. The team hoped that it could extend it into a class-action lawsuit.
"Sony tolerates and cultivates a work environment that discriminates against female employees, including female employees and those who identify as female," the suit stated, adding that women were generally paid less than men and were denied promotions. Majo, specifically, said she was demoted and then fired from her job for speaking out against discrimination.
Last month, Sony issued a rebuttal that stated Majo's claims were without merit in the hopes to dismiss the suit.
"Despite the sweeping breadth of her lawsuit, the allegations in which SIE categorically denies, [Majo] fails to plead facts to support either her individual claims or the claims of the broad-based classes of women she seeks to represent," it read.
