Cher Scarlett, a former Activision Blizzard and Apple employee, has filed a labor complaint with the United States National Labor Relations Board against Epic Games.
Scarlett alleges that the developer of Fortnite refused to hire her because of her labor defense activities and her support of unions.
Speaking to The Washington Post, Scarlett claimed that she had gone through four rounds of interviews with Epic Games between November and December 2021.
On December 8, a hiring coordinator at Epic sent Scarlett an email containing an “activity request” form, asking her to disclose “any efforts she puts in outside of work that may coincide with her potential role in Epic”.
Scarlett filled out the form the same day, stating that she had been advising Apple employees in a labor movement called “Apple Together,” and that she had also testified before the federal government regarding fair labor practices.
Two days later (December 10), Epic told Scarlett that they had decided to go with another candidate.
In response to The Washington Post, Epic Games spokeswoman Elka Looks said that “we offered the position to someone else who scored better in their interviews.”
“We received the application form for external activities [de Scarlett] when we had already made a hiring decision for the position and had made an offer to someone else. The form played no role in our decision,” Looks added.
Looks also told The Washington Post that Epic was aware of Scarlett’s work defending activity all along, but that it did not influence his decision. “This candidate’s resume and application included a link to his personal website. The website details his organizational activity, and this information did not influence our decision to proceed with interviews.”
Scarlett also filed a complaint against Firefox maker Mozilla in February, similarly accusing the company of not hiring her due to her labor defense.
She also has three open complaints against Apple, accusing the company of stopping attempts to collect salary data, retaliating against workers and creating a hostile work environment that forced her to leave in November 2021.
In other news, Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator has been released on Switch.
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