QA Workers At Raven Software Are Clear To Hold Union Vote

A union election has been given the go-ahead by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in favor of 21 Quality Assurance Workers at Raven Software. In January, the same group of QA workers filed a petition with the NLRB for a union election after Activision Blizzard missed a deadline set up by the group to voluntarily recognize the nascent union, named the Game Workers Alliance. Fast forward and now the NLRB decided in favor of the 21 QA workers at Raven Software that they are eligible to participate in a union election.

Ballots will be mailed out to eligible employees on April 29 and will need to be filled out and returned by the end of the business day on May 20. The NLRB’s filings have a comprehensive rundown of the facts of the case, inclusind the claim that “QA testers are the lowest paid employees at the Employer [Raven].” While Raven did promote most of its contract QA workers to full-time employees back in December, their pay increased to $18.50 which “would put the vast majority of QA testers at $38,430 annually, which is well below any other position’s listed minimum salary range,” according to the filing.

In response, Activision Blizzard spokesperson, Rich George, said “While we respect the NLRB process, we are disappointed that a decision that could significantly impact the future of our entire studio will be made by fewer than 10 percent of our employees.” The story is still under development as the ballot count won’t take place until May 23 via video conference.

Be sure to check out more details gathered by the Washington Post.