Yesterday, Activision Blizzard did the rounds online after letters to the SEC from the publisher's attorneys had been obtained by Motherboard. The letter read that attorneys believe that the proposal from the AFL-CIO was micromanaging the company, and "implementing a policy that would extend such an approach to all hiring decisions amounts to an unworkable encroachment on the Company’s ability to run its business and compete for talent in a highly competitive, fast-moving market.”

On January 28, Activision Blizzard president Daniel Alegre published an official statement explaining the company's stance. He wrote, "In our current hiring practices across the entire company and for every role, we emphasize and create diverse slates of candidates; our practices naturally allow hiring managers to ensure diversity within each country in which we operate."

He explained, "We don’t need the AFL-CIO proposal to reaffirm what we already do – encourage every hiring manager to consider diverse candidates for every position. We believe in our existing hiring practices, which encourages every hiring manager to seek diverse candidates for every single role."

Activision Blizzard

"We also ensure any candidate - regardless of backgrounds, ethnicities, genders, races and sexual orientations - is considered for each and every open role." Daniel added, "We are unequivocally committed to increasing diversity at all levels throughout Activision Blizzard worldwide."

He went on to explain that the diversity, equity, and inclusion will continue to be a focus for the company, explaining that its commitment begins through sourcing and recruiting, onboarding, and through alumni status. All new hires, on every level, are also said to go through mandatory diversity training.

In the statement, he shared that the company was recognised on January 28 by the Human Rights Campaign, "Today, in fact, we were recognized by the Human Rights Campaign with a perfect score on the Corporate Equality Index for LGBTQ-inclusive workplace policies and practices for the third year in a row, an achievement worth celebrating."

The Rooney Rule that the AFL-CIO proposed publishers adopt a system around during the hiring process was also proposed to EA ahead of its annual shareholder meeting. EA said that it would consider the proposal.