Quantic Dream has just gotten out of a French Court case involving an ex-employee who had resigned after being caricured in images shared internally.
Previously, the company culture at Quantic Dream was alleged to be pretty bad as reported by Eurogamer. These included allegations of lewd photoshops of employees being passed around, homophobic and/or racist jokes, and management making sexual advances on employees. Several cases have been working their way through the courts, and now one such case involving an unnamed ex-employee has come to a conclusion.
The unnamed ex-employee had been seeking €114,000 and a reclassification of their resignation as a dismissal after having been caricatured as "Super Nanny" by a colleague in a photoshopped image. The courts, however, have not ruled in this ex-employee's favor, essentially determining that Quantic Dream had mostly done the right thing in addressing these images before they got too out of control. That should be the end of it, but a ResetEra thread shows that this legal situation might still have some battles ahead in the near future.
Quantic Dream Responds to the French Court Ruling
First, let's start with the recent French Court ruling; a statement was made on the official Quantic Dream Twitter in regards to this ruling, which we've reproduced in full below.
On November 21st 2019, the Labor Court of Paris rendered its verdict in a case between Quantic Dream and an ex-employee. After said ex-employee was caricatured as "super Nanny" by a colleague, they sought compensation and damages of €114,000, in addition to the reclassifying of their resignation as unfair dismissal.
The judge rejected all of the ex-employee's principal requests, deeming very clearly that the "Super Nanny" image did not justify their claim and that there was no deterioration of their working conditions in the company. The judge further ruled that company management reacted appropriately, by taking all necessary measures on the day of the incident in question.
The ex-employee only obtained compensation of €5,000 (+ €2,000 in costs) in respect of a "security obligation": although these images were created outside of regular office hours and no complaints were made, the company should have anticipated the possibility of said images getting out of control, since they were created on company premises.
We take note of, and will not appeal, this judgment.
These facts are laid out clearly in order to prevent any misinformation or misrepresentation of the verdict.
Normally, that would be the end of things, but there are some additional factors that need to be considered.
The former employee has appealed the case as they claim there were additional photomontages passed around between employees that were not addressed in its first case. While Quantic Dream has said that it won't be appealing this particular case, the game developer may still find themselves back in court on similar matters.
What do you think of the Quantic Dream court case? Do you think they could have done more to protect their employees from this alleged harassment? Let us know in the comments below!
