Former VP at Tech Company Xilinx Fired for Pursuing Equal Pay for Women, Class Action Alleges

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Xilinx Equal Pay Class Action Lawsuit Overview:

• Who: Sabrina Joseph, a former high-level executive at tech company Xilinx, is suing the company for alleged violations of whistleblower protections and equal pay, fair employment and other labor laws.
• Why: Joseph alleges she was fired after discovering women at Xilinx were paid less than men for the same work, and then trying to fix the situation.
• Where: The lawsuit was filed in the Superior Court of California for the County of Santa Clara, where Xilinx is based.

A former high-level executive at the listed California technology company Xilinx was fired after discovering women were paid less than men for the same work at the company, and then trying to remedy it, a new class action lawsuit alleges.

Plaintiff Sabrina Joseph filed the $365 million lawsuit against Xilinx, Inc. in the Superior Court of California, County of Santa Clara August 9, alleging violations of a host of federal and state laws.

Based in San Jose, Xilinx is a leader in adaptive computing in the semiconductor industry. 

Joseph, the company’s former Senior Vice President of Strategic Marketing and Communications, says in 2017 she was provided compensation information for the Marketing Department’s employees when she started.

With that data, and with conversations she had with the department’s employees, she says she revealed a culture of wide-spread sex-based pay disparities, a hostile work environment, and sex discrimination department-wide.

She says she told Xilinx and came up with a plan to resolve the sex-based pay disparities, but told by leadership and HR not to get involved.

Despite this, Joseph says she continued pursuing equal pay for women in the department. However, Xilinx retaliated by terminating her contract less than a month after hiring her, the complaint alleges.

Joseph also alleges that Xilinx used her marketing strategy she created to drive “unprecedented growth in revenue.” The strategies included improved branding messages and language. 

She says her strategy influenced Microsoft’s Azure Cloud Unit to become a Xilinx customer, and that the company’s October 2018 earnings report showed a 30 percent increase. Xilinx’s market cap increased to $35 billion dollars, up from $17 billion in December 2017, in response, she claims.

Since her termination from the company, Xilinx has continued to retaliate against her through harassment, intimidation, and surveillance, Joseph alleges.

Joseph is suing the company under the Equal Pay Act, California Equal Pay Act, the state’s Fair Employment and Housing Act, the California Whistleblower Protection Act, the California Labor Code, the state’s Unfair Competition Law and common law. 

She’s also suing for Trade Secret Misappropriation, fraud, misrepresentation and concealment. 

She’s seeking reinstatement, damages based on profits earned using her trade secrets, estimated to be at least $350 million, lost compensation of about $15 million, fees, costs and a jury trial.

The Equal Pay Act is a federal labor law that amends the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, prohibiting gender-based wage discrimination in the United States. The Equal Pay Act was signed into law in 1963 by President John F. Kennedy. The law can be summed up by the phrase “equal pay for equal work” — that is, regardless of gender, people should not be paid different wages or benefits for doing jobs that require the same skills and responsibilities.

Now more than half a century old, the Equal Pay Act of 1963 was one of the first laws in American history intended to target gender discrimination in the workplace. When the law was introduced, women were still earning less than two-thirds of what men in the same positions were being paid. For more on the act, click here. 

What do you think of the allegations in this lawsuit? Let us know in the comments! 

Joseph is represented by Ed Chapin, Danielle Fuschetti and Qiaojing Zheng of Sanford Heisler Sharp, LLP; and Kenneth M. Fitzgerald of Fitzgerald Knaier LLP.

The Xilinx Equal Pay Class Action Lawsuit is Joseph v. Xilinx, Inc., et al., Case No. 21CV385612 in the Superior Court of California for the County of Santa Clara.

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