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Dota 2, Half-Life and Portal creator Valve has been struck with a $3.1 million lawsuit by a former staff member who claims she was discriminated against for being transgender.
The anonymous litigant was reportedly called ‘it’ by her supervisor following sex reassignment surgery in 2012, resulting in a ‘hostile work environment’, according to documents obtained by Polygon.
The suit also claims that the worker was fired within days of issuing a complaint to Valve’s HR department over unpaid fan translators, criticising the company for exploiting “people who were interested in their products to provide translation services for free”.
Valve has denied all of the allegations and asked for the case to be dismissed. It claims that the employee was made redundant after her job was moved to Washington from her home in LA – meanwhile, the suit claims that the company actively declined to keep her on, despite the translator offering to relocate.
The lawsuit is looking for $1 million for general damages, special damages and loss of earnings, respectively. Added to a further $150,000 for unpaid wages and penalties, the suit comes to a total of $3.1 million.
