If Ali has a mechanism to prevent sexual harassment, the victim does not need to dig scars in the cafeteria

Text | Ding Dong

On August 7, a female employee of Alibaba posted on Weibo, describing her nightmare experience of being forced to go on a business trip by a male leader. She was chilled by the deception, perfunctory and inaction of leaders at all levels during the period.

This is another "anti-sexual harassment" and "anti-sexual assault" social incident that relies on victims to dig scars on the Internet and in the company cafeteria to save themselves. The victims have to say that "the most powerful weapon in the world is the The determination to go out. I have shed all my tears now, and I have nothing to care about anymore. The big deal is that the fish will die and the net will be broken. Anyway, I will fight to the end! Never give in!".

More than ten days have passed since July 27, the day of the incident, and six days have passed since August 2, which was reported by the victim to the leadership. In the early morning of the 8th, Zhang Yong, chairman and CEO of Alibaba, posted a response on the Alibaba intranet. , using shock, anger and shame to express his feelings about the alleged violation of a female colleague by an Alibaba employee; Wang Shuai, Alibaba partner and chairman of the Marketing Public Relations Committee, said that he did not know what to say, "Ali is not like this."

But when we read the victim's statement, from the "premeditated" forced business trip at the beginning, the "talking about business" at the wine table with a strong sense of sexuality, to the later complaints to the immediate leaders and upper-level leaders of being sexually assaulted, the leaders Said "Do you think that if you don't drink alcohol, can this Jinan Hualian and some northern merchants be able to negotiate the business in the future?" and other confusing words, and when they play football with each other and don't face up to this sexual harassment incident that took advantage of power and affiliation , we know, "Ali is like that" .

Ali, who does not face sexual harassment in the workplace, and Ali, who has not established a mechanism to prevent sexual harassment, are such a hotbed for nurturing sexual harassment. Ali officially stated that it would not tolerate the sexual assault of female employees, and established an investigation team to conduct a comprehensive investigation. "Prevention is better than cure." I hope Ali will understand early that it is far more realistic to promote the establishment of a "prevention and control mechanism for sexual harassment" than to set up an investigation team after the fact.

Sexual harassment in the workplace is more common than we think. According to the "China Workplace Sexual Harassment Report" released by the 074 Workplace Women's Legal Hotline in 2018, 66.5% of people have experienced workplace sexual harassment; among all respondents who have experienced sexual harassment, women account for 96.8%. In a questionnaire survey conducted by The Paper in 2018, 81% of respondents said that their workplaces do not have a sexual harassment defense mechanism, and 12% said that even if there is such a mechanism, it is not really implemented. The government, on the other hand, does not have any actual punishment measures for companies that fail to formulate a mechanism to prevent sexual harassment, or even become biased towards sexual harassers. To jointly maintain a work environment free of sexual harassment, it is not only the employees who rely on them, but the company should be held responsible. Therefore, we urge Ali to establish a mechanism to prevent sexual harassment immediately. It is of course too late for the victims of this incident to remedy the situation, but it is possible to prevent similar tragedies from happening again.

We backtracked according to the records published by the victims. By showing at several key nodes of this incident, how the companies that had already established the prevention and control mechanism for sexual harassment would support the victims, and how did Ali, who did not have the mechanism to prevent sexual harassment, treat the victims Conduct multiple injuries to illustrate the role and necessity of institutionalizing sexual harassment mechanisms.

1. Establish a sexual harassment policy and conduct regular training: Ali should prevent such a sexual harassment from happening in a liquor bureau

"On July 27, after the group had a meeting with the merchant, my team leader, Qu Yi (Wang Chengwen), made an appointment with the other party for dinner. As soon as he arrived at the dinner table, he said to the male leaders of the merchant, see how good I am to you. I "sent" a beautiful woman to you, and emphasized to the businessman that I am very good at drinking (I immediately explained that I am not good at drinking)... After I was drunk and unconscious, there was a businessman named Zhang Guo First, he started kissing and touching me at the dinner table, but after that, it was really unsatisfactory, and he took me to the bathroom to help me clean up on the grounds that I had vomited after drinking and stained my clothes, and took me to another private room with no one. molested me..."

Article 1010 of the Civil Code of the People's Republic of China stipulates that "where people sexually harass others by means of words, words, images, physical actions, etc. against the will of others, the victim has the right to request the perpetrator to bear civil liability in accordance with the law. Organs, enterprises, schools, and other units should take reasonable measures to prevent, accept complaints, investigate and deal with, and prevent and stop the use of power, affiliation, etc. to carry out sexual harassment.”

What the victim experienced at the wine table and in the hotel was clearly a "premeditated" workplace sexual harassment.

As a responsible employer, in terms of preventing sexual harassment in the workplace, first of all, Ali should establish a written and clear sexual harassment policy, publish or reiterate the company's sexual harassment policy to all employees, and let employees know clearly that the company's position is that it will not tolerate any workplace sexual harassment. This sexual harassment policy not only needs to state the company's position, but also clearly defines the sexual harassment and clearly lists the handling methods and complaint channels for sexual harassment. Secondly, Ali should also conduct regular training to raise all employees' awareness of sexual harassment, understand the content of the company's system for preventing sexual harassment, and know the rights and obligations of individuals to prevent and control sexual harassment within the company. Additional knowledge training should be provided to managers and employees of the sexual harassment prevention and control department to improve their awareness of judging sexual harassment behaviors and enhance their ability to prevent and control sexual harassment incidents.

If Ali had established a mechanism to prevent sexual harassment, such a forced business trip and "premeditated" sexual harassment and liquor bureau would have been identified as suspected of "sexual harassment" and not allowed to exist; except, the immediate supervisor present should have actively prevented the implementation Businesses who engage in sexual harassment, record the relevant details, report to company management or even seek police assistance, instead of becoming an accomplice and sexually assaulting their subordinates.

If Ali regularly conducts sexual harassment prevention training and raises the awareness of sexual harassment among all employees, the abuser will always be reminded to be cautious about their behavior, and not to test the law and conduct workplace sexual harassment; It grows, gets worse, and eventually becomes sexual assault. When a victim complains, the person in charge of the BU can immediately judge it to be sexual harassment according to the existing sexual harassment prevention and control mechanism, instead of making confusing remarks about the guilt of the victim. It can be seen how ignorant the person in charge is about sexual harassment.

And this ignorance requires Ali to be responsible.

2. Set up complaint channels: Ali should remediate and deal with workplace sexual harassment in a timely manner

If Ali did not take precautionary measures in this matter, obviously it did not do post-mortem remedies either.

When the victim complained to his immediate supervisor on August 2, what were the relevant personnel of Ali doing? did nothing. During this period, apart from complaining directly with the supervisor, there are no guidelines or rules and regulations to tell the victim what she can do when she faces this workplace sexual harassment/assault. Besides her boss, what special department can she file a complaint with? What procedure will the department follow? What are the penalties for companies dealing with different types of sexual harassment? When will the results come out? How will the victim's work, trauma, etc. be dealt with during and afterward? During the investigation, how is the work of the reported person handled, and is it separated from the victim in the workplace to avoid secondary harm to the victim? Not only because of the manager's "indifference", but also because there is no established and reasonable regulations, after the victim waited for a few days, the answer she got was: "Tell me they can't fire Qu Yi, they can't handle this matter. During this period, the perpetrators continued to go about their day-to-day tasks."

Let me ask, who is not despairing, who is not heartbroken?

If Ali had established a sexual harassment prevention mechanism, there would have been an investigation and handling department dedicated to workplace sexual harassment to handle related complaints . When a respondent encounters workplace sexual harassment/assault, he or she can make a complaint through a hotline, a dedicated e-mail, a dedicated mailbox, a dedicated colleague, etc. Colleagues in the department will investigate and collect evidence based on the victim's complaint and retain the original Records; and inform the victim of the time limit for collecting evidence and processing; and when the time limit expires, the employee who has been verified to commit sexual harassment will be dealt with or punished in a timely manner. When necessary, it is even more necessary to stand with the victim and seek help from the local public security department, women's rights protection department, etc. In addition, Ali should also conduct regular reviews of the sexual harassment policy and related mechanisms for preventing and handling complaints, and pay attention to whether the prevention and remedial measures are effective in preventing the recurrence of sexual harassment.

Ali is also responsible for the "indifference" and "inaction" of the responsible personnel.

There have always been scandals of sexual harassment in Alibaba (especially the so-called icebreakers), and Jack Ma’s speeches to the company’s female employees were also full of gender discrimination, but no one was held accountable, and no one urged him to establish a mechanism to prevent sexual harassment immediately. Since Ali often claims to be the number one leader on the Internet, please also play a leading role in establishing a corporate sexual harassment prevention mechanism.