After employees from Blizzard Versailles were made redundant in 2020, a move that preceded the studio’s closure, those affected began a legal battle with the company. Now, staff that were made redundant have won their appeal.
As reported by French outlet Gamekult (via Gamesindustry.biz), an appeal court has invalidated the redundancies that led to the closure of the branch in 2020. As such, those looking to seek further legal actions will now potentially be entitled to “further compensations, equivalent to a minimum of six months of salary”.
But while this is certainly still a victory in itself, it does not mean former Blizzard Versailles employees will find their positions reinstated in a different studio.
“That’s the hypocrisy of this law voted in 2013: you can discipline the administration, and behind it the company, for not handling things properly, but instead of drawing the necessary consequences and prevent the reorganisation – and in this case the closure – things can just follow their course in the meantime,” explained Mehdi Bouzaida, the lawyer handling this case.
“What this means in concrete terms is that, as soon as the administration validated the [redundancy] plan, the company sent the dismissal letters in the following days. In other words, people get dismissed, and a few months later a decision like the one we have today is reached, but the law at that moment won’t force the company to reintegrate the former employees, so only compensations are planned.”
Gamekult has reached out to Activision Blizzard’s European leadership, but the company declined to comment.
Eurogamer has also reached out to Activation Blizzard for comment.
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