Alibaba responded to the "female employee being violated" incident, "excessive intimacy" statement cited controversial many legal experts said
The expression is ambiguous or causes secondary harm to the victim
□ Our reporter Zhao Li
□ Intern Yang Yinan
In response to the "Alibaba female employee being violated" incident, in the early morning of August 9, Zhang Yong, Chairman and CEO of Alibaba, announced on the Alibaba intranet the phased internal investigation results and handling decision: In view of Qu Yi's admission of existence and colleague ×× being drunk Excessive intimacy in the state, serious violation of company regulations, will be dismissed and never hired.
Regarding whether he has violated the law such as rape or indecency, he awaits the conclusion and action of the police investigation.
At the same time, two company executives took the blame and resigned, and Tong Wenhong, the group's chief human resources officer, received a demerit penalty.
As soon as the results of the interim internal investigation and the handling decision were made, it once again aroused public attention and heated discussions.
In particular, the expression of "excessive intimacy" has caused controversy among netizens.
Blurred concept of excessive intimacy
To dilute the negative impact
Many netizens have asked, what is meant by "excessive intimacy"?
In the view of Peng Xinlin, assistant to the dean of the Institute of Criminal Law Science of Beijing Normal University and deputy secretary-general of the China Criminal Law Research Association, "excessive intimacy" is a relatively vague and general concept and scope, not an expression with legal thinking.
"Ali female employee was violated" may involve serious crimes such as rape. Therefore, the use of "excessive intimacy" to respond does not accurately reflect the nature of the case, and there is a tendency to downplay the incident.
"Whether the incident is rape or obscenity, it must be based on facts and the law as the criterion. It requires a comprehensive investigation and evidence collection to make an accurate judgment." Peng Xinlin said, but from the current situation, Ali's response represents the company. The attitude of “excessive intimacy in a drunk state” was adopted to respond to this matter, and it is more hope that the negative impact brought by this matter can be downplayed, because excessive intimacy after drunkenness can easily make people think that they are two people. Intimacy between voluntary acts may conceal the facts of crimes.
If it is found to be suspected of rape
So stated or stigmatized
Zhang Rongli, associate professor of the Law School of China Women’s University, believes that in the results of Ali’s periodic internal investigations and handling decisions, the incident was described as “in view of Qu Yi’s admission of existence and his colleague ××'s excessive intimacy under drunkenness”, this statement is very unreasonable. Appropriate, it is easy to cause ambiguity. If it is found that the perpetrator constitutes a rape crime in the future, then such an expression will stigmatize the victim.
Peng Xinlin also pointed out that objectively there is indeed a problem of stigmatization.
If the incident is confirmed to have been raped at the end, and the incident has aroused widespread concern in society, then under such circumstances, how can we better protect the victimized women?
Their reputation rights, privacy rights, etc. are also issues that need to be paid attention to. The process, details, and identity information of the sexual assault should not be disclosed to prevent secondary harm to the victim.
In an interview with the media, Lu Xiaoquan, executive director of Beijing Qianqian Law Firm, also believes that the expression of "excessive intimacy" is easy to cause criticism, and the characterization of the behavior ultimately depends on the investigation of the public security organs, but such expressions are likely to cause harm to the victim. Second injury.
He believes that in the process of crisis handling of such incidents, a moderate gender perspective should be introduced, and the victim's special disadvantaged position and disadvantage should be considered with empathy.
"Using'excessive intimacy' to respond is a cover in itself. It is a public relations method and a stigmatizing behavior for the victim." Retired professor of Law School of China Women's University, Beijing Daorong Law Office Lawyer Liu Minghui said that although Ali’s response has little impact on judicial handling because the judicial organ has an investigation system that pays more attention to direct evidence, the idea of this response is wrong. After the incident, the victim should be protected as much as possible instead of Inflicting secondary harm to it, "this kind of response has a great impact on the reputation of the victim, and the victim can even bring a lawsuit for infringement of the right of reputation."
"How did a suspected rape act that is under investigation by the police become'excessive intimacy'? If Ali uses the perpetrator's admission, where is the victim's voice? The best practice for companies at this time is to quote information released by the police. , Or leave the incident to the judicial authorities to determine the characterization. You cannot rush to position the incident as'excessive intimacy while drunk' before the facts are found.” Zhang Rongli believes that this is not a fair attitude to solve the problem, and Ali should Take this incident seriously, cooperate with the judicial authorities to find out the truth, and perform the company's due legal responsibilities.
Create a good corporate culture
Establish an anti-sexual harassment mechanism
Sexual harassment incidents are unwilling to see, and the negative impact on enterprises is also profound.
How can companies prevent sexual harassment incidents and deal with them in a timely manner?
The deputy dean of the School of Labor Economics of Capital University of Economics and Business believes that, first of all, we should try our best to create a gender-equal and relatively autonomous working environment in the corporate culture to prevent sexual harassment incidents; secondly, after the incident, we should not take shelter or condone To deal with problems with a cover-up attitude, we should adopt an objective and fair attitude, investigate and deal with them in accordance with corresponding rules and regulations, and provide timely relief to employees who have suffered sexual harassment.
"It is necessary to create a good corporate culture and avoid the formation of stigmatization or corporate culture that is not conducive to gender equality or autonomy. For this incident, people may criticize Ali not only because of the incident itself, but also the incident. The dregs of corporate culture reflected behind it." Range said.
In interviews, some corporate managers also admitted that there is a “dilemma” after the occurrence of workplace sexual harassment. From the perspective of maintaining their own reputation, the company actually does not want to make it public; however, if it is not handled properly, it will further damage the corporate reputation.
"It is not necessary to disclose sexual harassment in the workplace. For victims, most of them may not want to disclose it. In many cases, sexual harassment is disclosed because the company fails to take measures, causing the victim to passively disclose it. For companies, a sound prevention is established. Sexual harassment system, timely and decisive handling of sexual harassment behavior can prevent reputation from being affected. Avoiding or neglecting can only lead to more damage to the corporate image." said Shen Jianfeng, director of the Center for Labor and Social Security Law of the Central University of Finance and Economics.
In Zhang Rongli’s view, the attitude of the company is understandable. From the practice of various countries, if the company or unit has established a complaint-verification-handling mechanism for sexual harassment, and it is smooth and effective in practice, and the result of the treatment is fair, then the workers are in When such problems are encountered, internal mechanisms are used to deal with them. Some less serious incidents of sexual harassment can be resolved through internal mechanisms such as expelling or dismissing the harasser, compensating the victim, and improving the employment environment.
Since some companies and units such as Ali did not establish an anti-sexual harassment mechanism, when they encountered such problems, they were slow to deal with them. The victims even used decisive means such as "burning jade and stone" to expose the incident, which caused a heavy blow to the reputation of the company and the unit.
Therefore, it is an urgent task for labor-intensive units to establish an anti-sexual harassment mechanism within an enterprise or unit as soon as possible.
"The more you want to cover it, the more counterproductive the final result will be, and the greater the price paid by the enterprise and the perpetrator," Zhang Rongli said.
“Enterprises must fully understand the seriousness of similar incidents, and in the process of handling them, they must also correctly judge the degree of harm.” Weng Xiaoping, a lawyer at the Kyoto Law Firm, who is a member of the Beijing Corporate Legal Risk Prevention and Control Research Association, said that if the incident is still In the budding state, the circumstances were relatively minor and did not cause much damage. The enterprise can achieve the purpose of punishment through internal sanctions or job transfers of the employees involved. Once this limit is exceeded and national legal issues are involved, such as forced indecency, rape, etc., the company must assist the victim to report to the police as soon as it becomes aware.