PlayStation gender discrimination lawsuit re-emerges in revised form

Former PlayStation employee Emma Majo has launched a new gender discrimination lawsuit against PlayStation after an initial attempt was dismissed by a federal judge in April.

Majo, an ex-PlayStation IT analyst, initially filed a suit against the company last November, claiming, among other things, that PlayStation paid women less than men in similar jobs, that women were denied promotions, and that she was wrongfully fired "soon after" submitting a signed statement to Sony in 2021 detailing the alleged gender bias she had experienced.

Those initial claims were supported by a raft of new allegations in March, when eight more PlayStation employees, past and present, submitted statements alleging sexual harassment, bullying, gender bias, and an inability to properly investigate these issues at the company.

A federal judge ultimately moved to dismiss the lawsuit in April, citing a lack of "specific facts", but said certain elements of the case could proceed - specifically those relating to Majo's dismissal from PlayStation, and any violation of whistleblower protection which may have occurred - and that the case could be resubmitted with more details.

And that's exactly what Majo has chosen to do. As reported by Axios, an amended version of the lawsuit with a narrower focus has now been submitted to a California court, this time seeking damages for all women who worked at PlayStation’s California locations below vice president level, rather than for all female PlayStation employees across the US.

Allegations in the new suit are said to be largely similar to those in the original November filing - including claims women were passed up for promotion in favour of male colleagues, alongside claims of unequal pay and retaliation - but it now explicitly incorporates "more specific facts about the classwide policies and practices [at PlayStation] which institutionalised gender-based discrimination and gender-based harassment".

Notably, these include details based on the aforementioned declarations submitted by female PlayStation employees in March, and a Deloitte study in which Sony was found to have a "very low" percentage of women in management positions compared to its peers.

Sony is yet to comment on the revised gender discrimination lawsuit but expect to hear more as proceedings unfold.

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