A good HR department protects the company by protecting the employees though. Not good business to get your business involved in expensive lawsuits because your HR department took the path of least resistance.

Sounds like they need to totally overhaul HR and give them real power to action to whatever complaints are coming in. A lot of management will have to go in order to change the culture. Unfortunately culture starts at the top and I’m not sure Linus himself can lead that change.