Jack Ma’s e-commerce giant, Alibaba, has been hit by a sexual harassment case. The manager involved in the case has now been fired, and several senior officials have also resigned.
The case stemmed from an Alibaba female employee who accused her employer and company customers of sexual harassment. The female employee shared the incident on Alibaba’s internal network via an 11 -page PDF document, before it went viral after being uploaded to Weibo.
The woman employee said she was forced by her manager to take a business trip to meet with customers in the city of Jinan, which is located about 900 km from Alibaba’s headquarters in Hangzhou.
According to the employee, on Tuesday (27/7) night, he was ordered by his manager to drink alcohol with his client, and was kissed by his client. After drinking alcohol, he woke up in his hotel room naked and could not remember what had happened the night before.
CCTV footage revealed that the female manager entered the hotel room four times throughout the night. The manager told Alibaba management that he committed an “intimate act” with a drunken female employee.
Upon her return to Hangzhou, the female employee reported the incident to officials and the management department and demanded that her boss be fired. Although the personnel department agreed, they did not take such action.
Alibaba CEO Daniel Zhang immediately denounced the incident and called it something embarrassing. He said the incident was being investigated by insiders and the police.
“Regardless of gender, whether it’s a request made by a customer or a supervisor, our employees are empowered to reject it,” Zhang said in an internal memo to Alibaba employees.
"This incident is an insult to all Alibaba employees. We have to rebuild, and we have to change," he continued.
The manager working in Alibaba’s City Retail unit has been fired and will no longer be hired. The president and chief of staff of the City Retail unit also resigned over the incident, and Alibaba’s Chief People’s Officer also received a reprimand.
Zhang said Alibaba will conduct training to prevent sexual harassment and launch special channels that employees can use to report incidents they experience. Alibaba will also release a policy of intolerant anti-sexual violence.
Zhang also stressed that Alibaba strongly challenges the culture of forced drinking. In the memo, Zhang also said Alibaba would be responsible for the welfare of female workers who were victims.
In a group chat on the DingTalk messaging app, Alibaba employees demanded justice for the victims and action to prevent sexual harassment. Currently the group created specifically to discuss the issue already has more than 6,000 members.
Tags
NEWS & FACT
