After voicing concerns to upper management about alleged sexual harassment towards female employees at a tech company, a San Jose security contractor was fired. As a result, the security contractor, Robert Lobach, who also happens to be a former San Jose police officer, has filed a lawsuit against the tech company, Xilinx. So what happened? What were the events that lead up to Lobach's termination?According to Lobach's lawsuit, “a global security manager at Xilinx began talking about his genitals during a company party,” making many female colleagues uncomfortable. However, none of the women complained to HR because they were worried that if they did, “they would suffer retaliation.” Lobach tried to encourage the women to “reconsider going to HR, but they declined and he offered to make the complaint on their behalf.” Once the women agreed, Lobach filed a complaint with HR on the women's behalf and was allegedly fired in retaliation for making the complaint,” according to the suit.Before he even went to HR, Lobach took the time and consideration to meet with each woman individually to “confirm the details of what they experienced at the December 2017 party, also attended by Xilinx head of global security operations Chris Ward.” According to numerous accounts from the women, while at the party, Ward was telling a story “about a man who threatened to cut off a portion of his genitals.” From there, he allegedly proceeded to “praise his reproductive organ and emphasized his desire to protect it from the would-be assailant.”

Xilinx Headquarters; image courtesy of Xilinx, Inc. via WIkimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org

It should be noted that the women present at the party who were uncomfortable by Ward's story were contractors, like Lobach, “from the security company Allied Universal Security Services, which provided services to Xilinx.” This is important because Ward allegedly violated the company's Code of Social Responsibility because when he “noticed his Allied co-workers’ discomfort he proclaimed ‘I’m the client I can say this.'”About a week went by before Lobach approached HR to inform the department of the women's concerns and the alleged harassment. The next day, he was fired, according to the lawsuit.However, Xilinx has so far pushed back against the allegations in the lawsuit and claimed instead that Allied had reassigned Lobach “a month after he made the complaint." In addition, a company spokesperson issued the following statement:“We cannot comment on this lawsuit, but Xilinx does not tolerate harassment in the workplace as outlined in its Code of Conduct. We are committed to a safe and comfortable work environment for all employees, as well as contractors.  We take all matters of potential violations of our policy very seriously and deal with issues thoroughly and swiftly.”

Sources:

Ex-San Jose cop stood up for sexually harassed women at tech firm and was fired for it: lawsuitXILINX CODE OF SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY