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http://www.polygon.com/2016/5/24/11761242/valve-former-employee-lawsuit-transgender-discrimination

A former translator for Valve Corporation is suing the game maker for more than $3 million, alleging that her supervisor at the company created a hostile work environment by referring to her as "it" following her sex reassignment surgery, according to the suit obtained by Polygon.

The employee, who is identified only by initials in the lawsuit, also says that Valve fired her after she complained to human resources about the company's practice of "utilizing people who were interested in their products to provide translation services for free."

The unnamed litigant also notes discrimination, retaliation and four other causes for her lawsuit. We've reached out to Valve for additional comment and will update this story when they respond.

The suit was filed on April 12, 2016, and Valve has denied all wrongdoing in its response.

More at the link. There are two main issues in the complaint. One is that she feels that her supervisor was creating a hostile work environment by referring to her as "it", and that him not being comfortable with her gender resassignment contributed to her termination. The other is that she complained about Valve exploiting free labor for localization work, and she feels that was the main contributing factor to her termination.

Valve has not responded publicly to the reports, but they deny all charges in the lawsuit.

 

[The Technomancer]

http://www.polygon.com/2016/5/24/11...icle:top&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter

Jesus. Hope justice is done if there's any foundation to the allegations

A former translator for Valve Corporation is suing the game maker for more than $3 million, alleging that her supervisor at the company created a hostile work environment by referring to her as "it" following her sex reassignment surgery, according to the suit obtained by Polygon.

The employee, who is identified only by initials in the lawsuit, also says that Valve fired her after she complained to human resources about the company's practice of "utilizing people who were interested in their products to provide translation services for free."

The unnamed litigant also notes discrimination, retaliation and four other causes for her lawsuit. We've reached out to Valve for additional comment and will update this story when they respond.

A former translator for Valve Corporation is suing the game maker for more than $3 million, alleging that her supervisor at the company created a hostile work environment by referring to her as "it" following her sex reassignment surgery, according to the suit obtained by Polygon.

The employee, who is identified only by initials in the lawsuit, also says that Valve fired her after she complained to human resources about the company's practice of "utilizing people who were interested in their products to provide translation services for free."

The unnamed litigant also notes discrimination, retaliation and four other causes for her lawsuit. We've reached out to Valve for additional comment and will update this story when they respond.

The suit was filed on April 12, 2016, and Valve has denied all wrongdoing in its response.

According to the April 12 filing, the plaintiff worked at Valve's headquarters in Washington state prior to 2012. Sometime in 2012, the litigant planned to undergo gender transition and told the company she needed to move to Los Angeles, where her doctors were located and where she could recover while still working.

Valve accommodated her request, allowing her to work from home in LA to recover from the surgery, but also because of "related disabilities including depression." The company required the translator to be reclassified as an independent contractor as a condition of the move, according to the suit.

The translator continued to work at Valve until earlier this year, when she filed a complaint about unpaid translators whom she felt were being exploited and lured to work for free based on "false promises made by her supervisor," according to the suit.

Within days of filing a written complaint about the practice, the translator was fired, the lawsuit says. Valve said at the time that her job was being relocated to Washington. But when the translator offered to move, Valve declined to keep her on, according to the suit.

The translator believes she was fired because of her complaint and because her supervisor was uncomfortable with her being a transgender woman. According to the suit, he would refer to the translator as "it."

The suit is seeking $1 million for general damages, $1 million for special damages, $150,000 for unpaid wages and penalties, and $1 million for loss of earnings. The translator is also asking for punitive damages to be decided by the court.

 

[DeathSparks]

WAT

 

[BY2K]

Jesus...

 

[Nomadic Sparks]

There is definitely an awful dumpster fire going on where the smoke is coming from in this case.

 

[MGrant]

I don't think there's any way for us to know much about the discrimination at this point, but the translation thing always did kind of rub me the wrong way. If you've got a skill, and you're contributing value to a company by using that skill, you should probably be paid to do it.

 

[MetroidPrimeRib]

Wow that's shitty.

 

[True Fire]

That sounds unethical as hell (the exploitation of workers and firing a whistleblower bit). It's not really surprising coming from Valve though. The discrimination part is pretty upsetting, but they didn't really dwell into it too much.

 

[Tecnniqe]

Jesus.
If this turn out to be true Valve hit a new low.
And thats looow

 

[ant_]

The discrimination is despicable. Unfortunately, the unpaid translating is a known quantity with Valve.

My question - are these things being lumped together? I'm scared that any discrimination practices (the former) might be tossed out if the latter can't be quantified.

 

[NinjaCoachZ]

Whoa, this is screwed up beyond belief. Valve sounds like a seriously dark place to work after reading this.. Wish her all the best.

 

[pj]

These accusations are more than enough for me to pass judgement

 

[Portugeezer]

These accusations are more than enough for me to pass judgement

Why?

 

[zoku88]

It always kind of bothered me when for profit companies asked for volunteers to work on portions of their non libre game. (same thing kind of happened with Skullgirls Linux port)

 

[CertifiedFP]

Jesus.
If this turn out to be true Valve hit a new low.
And thats looow

New?

I'll need to dig it up again, but there's a thread on the Steam forums somewhere where a user complained about harassment on Steam, and a Valve employee (Who still is) replied with something along the lines of "Just block them lol"

 

[- J - D -]

I guess Valve being "the best place to work in the industry" (as per employee survey) only applies to its developers. So much for the utopian dream.

 

[Nokterian]

Yoooooooo what the hell valve??

 

[Rushersauce]

Valve, WTF?

 

[Gestault]

These accusations are more than enough for me to pass judgement

This post seems deliberately phrased to sound troubling.

 

[ElectricBlanketFire]

New?

I'll need to dig it up again, but there's a thread on the Steam forums somewhere where a user complained about harassment on Steam, and a Valve employee (Who still is) replied with something along the lines of "Just block them lol"

This is obviously worse.

 

[bathsalts]

The discrimination is despicable. Unfortunately, the unpaid translating is a known quantity with Valve.

My question - are these things being lumped together? I'm scared that any discrimination practices (the former) might be tossed out if the latter can't be quantified.

They are part of the same lawsuit but can be judged independently I believe, they could be awarded damages based on some items but not others.

 

[dsk1210]

Whats with the steam attack force? surely wait for some decent details.

There is people that try this stuff all time from companies that make a lot of money, not that I am saying what has been said is incorrect.

 

[K.Jack]

There's been stories of how shitty it is to work at Valve, this doesn't surprise me at all.

 

[Trouble]

I guess Valve being "the best place to work in the industry" (as per employee survey) only applies to its developers. So much for that utopian dream.

Valve isn't any less susceptible to brogrammers than the rest of the industry. Maybe even more so, tbh.

 

[Fox318]

Yoooooooo what the hell valve??

trash leadership

 

[TheTylerRob]

There's been stories of how shitty it is to work at Valve, this doesn't surprise me at all.

You mean how everyone has moving desks and you're allowed to work on whatever you want?

 

[Lord of Ostia]

The whole unpaid translation thing is some serious BS. I know we had a thread on this earlier in the year, but it really irks me that Valve doesn't compensate people for their hard work in translating their games. That said, the discrimination is also awful and should be dealt with strongly.

 

[cjtiger300]

Woah

 

[duckroll]

Whats with the steam attack force? surely wait for some decent details.

There is people that try this stuff all time from companies that make a lot of money, not that I am saying what has been said is incorrect.

Whats with the victim blaming squad? surely wait for some decent details.

There are companies that pull this shit all the time on employees who are unable to defend themselves, not that I am saying what has been said is incorrect.

 

[Nomadic Sparks]

Jesus.
If this turn out to be true Valve hit a new low.
And thats looow

This is not a new low for Valve or the gaming industry, in general.

Hostility towards women and transgender women is how that how offices like Valve make their intentions known.

Glad someone has the willingness to make valve pay like this.

 

[Trouble]

You mean how everyone has moving desks and you're allowed to work on whatever you want?

Neither of those things magically make it a good work environment. Also 'work on what you want' smacks of completely bullshit like Google's 20% rule.

 

[ipukespiders]

Whats with the steam attack force? surely wait for some decent details.

There is people that try this stuff all time from companies that make a lot of money, not that I am saying what has been said is incorrect.

Yep.

We've reached out to Valve for additional comment and will update this story when they respond.

Damage already done.

 

[Instro]

There's been stories of how shitty it is to work at Valve, this doesn't surprise me at all.

I think we know enough about working conditions and culture in the industry that its not hard to believe that this is true. Innocent until proven guilty though.

Having said that, I doubt we'll see any meaningful resolution here. Seems unlikely that it would make it to trial.

 

[CertifiedFP]

This is obviously worse.

It's still an issue in Valve's culture. I'll need to do some digging since I never saved them for posterity, but I've seen a lot of Gate-y rhetoric out of Valve employees on Steam's forums from time to time. And I should probably remind you that Gaben re-instated Hatred's presence on Steam and apparently reprimanded the employee(s) responsible for pulling it.

Can't find the post I'm thinking about, but for now have this.

Kinda weird how the "bad guys" of PC gaming, EA, are probably the most progressive publishers around, whilst our "glorious lord and savior" Gaben and Valve seem to have a lot of right-wing leaning to them.

 

[BumblebeeCody]

Well that's not good.

 

[xorx]

Wow 3.1 million? This might not turn out well.

 

[Nomadic Sparks]

It's still an issue in Valve's culture. I'll need to do some digging since I never saved them for posterity, but I've seen a lot of Gate-y rhetoric out of Valve employees on Steam's forums from time to time. And I should probably remind you that Gaben re-instated Hatred's presence on Steam and apparently reprimanded the employee(s) responsible for pulling it.

Can't find the post I'm thinking about, but for now have this.

Kinda weird how the "bad guys" of PC gaming, EA, are probably the most progressive publishers around, whilst our "glorious lord and savior" Gaben and Valve seem to have a lot of right-wing leaning to them.

Truth

 

[K.Jack]

You mean how everyone has moving desks and you're allowed to work on whatever you want?

I think this thread is at least partly what came to my mind.

There's some other cultural stuff I've heard, that I can't find.

 

[NoblesseOblige]

We've reached out to Valve for additional comment and will update this story when they respond.

If their PR is anything like their CS then this may take awhile.

 

[Imperfected]

This raises an interesting question: what are the mechanisms Valve has in place for violations of things like workplace safety, discrimination, etc.?

A normal corporate structure provides a "chain of command". If you feel someone you're working with is creating a hostile environment, you can go to your supervisor with a complaint. If your supervisor is creating a hostile environment, you can go to his boss with a complaint. Litigation generally only becomes necessary if the entire corporate structure is proven to be incapable of resolving the issue.

Valve's flat structure doesn't really allow for that. I assume they must have some sort of HR watchdogs who violations can be reported to, at the least? They aren't just trusting in some utopian vision where these sorts of things never happen, I'm sure.

 

[BennyBlanco]

It's still an issue in Valve's culture. I'll need to do some digging since I never saved them for posterity, but I've seen a lot of Gate-y rhetoric out of Valve employees on Steam's forums from time to time. And I should probably remind you that Gaben re-instated Hatred's presence on Steam and apparently reprimanded the employee(s) responsible for pulling it.

Can't find the post I'm thinking about, but for now have this.

Kinda weird how the "bad guys" of PC gaming, EA, are probably the most progressive publishers around, whilst our "glorious lord and savior" Gaben and Valve seem to have a lot of right-wing leaning to them.

What exactly are you trying to illustrate with that screenshot? I see nothing objectionable at all there.

And Gabe was right to put Hatred back on Steam. It's an open platform and there are very similar games on the service that had been there for years prior to Hatred.

 

[raphier]

Valve's reputation is dead in the waters.

Wow 3.1 million? This might not turn out well.

It won't be 3 million. They will bargain. It's common procedure.

 

[Wallach]

If their PR is anything like their CS then this may take awhile.

unlike their support gabe sometimes responds to e-mails

 

[Linkark07]

Kinda weird how the "bad guys" of PC gaming, EA, are probably the most progressive publishers around, whilst our "glorious lord and savior" Gaben and Valve seem to have a lot of right-wing leaning to them.

It is quite ironic really. Of all the game clients, Steam has the worst overlay, and their customer support continue being terrible, despite they promising they will make it better (we know they wont). Heck, Uplay is better than Steam in some ways.

It is a shame really, I used to respect Valve and Newell. Now, they only seem to live from Steam, Esports and, soon, from paid mods.

 

[ElectricBlanketFire]

Whats with the steam attack force? surely wait for some decent details.

There is people that try this stuff all time from companies that make a lot of money, not that I am saying what has been said is incorrect.

How does suggesting she made up the story for money work into your "wait for more details" plan?

 

[Art Vandilay]

It may go without saying, but literally in every lawsuit the defendant denies all allegations.

 

[Morrigan Stark]

The discrimination is despicable.

Aye, definitely. That said we don't know if it's true or not yet, but if it is, I hope the plaintiff gets a nice fat check.

Unfortunately, the unpaid translating is a known quantity with Valve.

WTF? What are they doing exactly? Hiring interns or fans to do unpaid work or something?

 

[MrCunningham]

Wow 3.1 million? This might not turn out well.

I guess this former Valve employee wants to make sure that Valve can count beyond the number 3.

 

[Juke Joint Jezebel]

So this case currently centres around an allegation at the moment? I take it a complaint was filed with HR at the time or shortly after the supervisor caused the offence? It'd be a bit of a "He said, she said" situation otherwise. How would the case get decided if only an allegation is being made? That translation shit is pretty henious though if true.

While these allegations are not sounding good, we should wait for more information before drawing a conclusion about Valve's culture.

Pretty much this.

 

[Deft Beck]

While these allegations are not sounding good, we should wait for more information before drawing a conclusion about Valve's culture.

Their non-paid translation scheme is not so good, by any measure.