A former Niantic worker has filed swimsuit towards the California-based sport studio for allegedly discriminating towards its feminine workers. She accuses Niantic of fostering a “boys membership” the place feminine workers are paid much less and given much less steerage than male workers of the identical or decrease rank. In accordance with a report from The Verge, she’s in search of class-action standing to incorporate different workers who could have been affected.

The previous worker stays nameless, however started work for Niantic in 2020. She discovered inside a 12 months of being employed that she was paid lower than a male worker regardless of having extra duties and the next place throughout the firm. She allegedly later spoke with different feminine workers and found she was not alone on this regard, however the studio’s management reacted poorly to the difficulty being introduced up. “Jane Doe” was one of many workers let go in Niantic’s current layoffs.

The grievance says it’s about “systemic sexual bias at Niantic.” Niantic is just not the one firm about which such allegations have been made. In 2021, Activision Blizzard confronted a lawsuit from a California regulatory physique for having a tradition of sexual harassment and discrimination (additionally referred to a number of occasions as a “boy’s membership” or a fraternity-like setting). Riot Video games additionally this 12 months obtained ultimate approval on a settlement for the same gender discrimination lawsuit.

Niantic’s current layoffs reportedly mirror the corporate’s intention to focus extra of its efforts on Pokémon GO and the video games such because the not too long ago launched Peridot. It introduced it’s sunsetting NBA All World and cancelling improvement on Marvel: World of Heroes. The corporate laid off 230 workers throughout this restructure.