A "snitch" label, two disciplinary boards, a 490-mile commute - then the pink slip

A former technician at Alyeska Pipeline Service Company says the company punished him for years and ultimately fired him because he opposed sexual harassment at work and helped the company's own investigation.

Robert Saxton, who worked at the Valdez Marine Terminal in Alaska from September 2021 to December 2025, filed his complaint on April 30, 2026 in the US District Court for the District of Alaska. The case is brought under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. Saxton is seeking back pay, front pay, compensatory damages, and punitive damages.

According to the filing, the trouble started around November 2022. Saxton says a male coworker, Torin Smith, regularly grabbed, struck, or attempted to grab or strike Saxton and other employees in the genitals during work hours - conduct Smith referred to, according to the complaint, as "sack tapping." Saxton says he told Smith to stop and defended others. He also objected when Smith displayed a defaced, life-sized cardboard cutout of another employee in the workplace.

Saxton's supervisor, Jeff Woods, was on hand for some of the incidents and did not step in, the complaint alleges. The filing describes Woods and Smith as close friends.

When a female coworker filed an anonymous complaint through Alyeska's Employee Concerns Program, Saxton took part as a witness. The complaint alleges Woods then disclosed who the supposedly anonymous complainant was to...

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