Eight more women have come forward to join an ongoing legal case against PlayStation owner Sony for an alleged environment of sexist and discriminatory behaviour. The women, both current and former employees of Sony, have added their accounts to a proposed class-action which began with former IT security analyst Emma Majo’s initial case against the company. Majo, along with these other cases, are alleging that PlayStation and Sony are fostering a work environment that is hostile to women in explicit and implicit ways, making the gaming giant the latest in a string of corporations accused of similar failures toward women over the past decade.
Eight More Women Level Allegations of Sexist Workplace at Sony
Majo’s case began last November when she filed a lawsuit claiming she was wrongfully terminated and discriminated against at PlayStation because of her gender. Sony attempted to have the case dismissed, citing a lack of evidence, but now eight additional women have stepped forward to bolster Majo’s claims.
Stephen Totilo at Axios reports these women as alleging a range of abusive and demeaning practices across several U.S.-based PlayStation offices. These allegations range from an inability to be taken seriously in the workplace and the deliberate lack of attention given to work or ideas presented by these women. The filings go on to detail unwelcome advances, demeaning comments and a general gender imbalance across team meetings and promotion considerations.
Kara Johnson, a former program manager with the company, wrote in her statement to the courts, “I believe Sony is not equipped to appropriately handle toxic environments.” Johnson’s statement goes on to detail repeated attempts to inform her superiors of the issues plaguing the office, and that she was aware of ten other women who had all left the California based office in the preceding four months.
You can read the full report here.
