Alibaba Group fires manager accused of sexual harassment, says ‘will never be rehired’

Jack Ma’s Alibaba Group has fired a manager after a female employee accused him of sexual harassment. Group CEO Daniel Zhang said that the Chinese e-commerce giant will establish policies to prevent sexual harassment at workplace. The manager who worked with Alibaba’s City Retail Unit “has been fired and will never be rehired”, Zhang said in a memo accessed by Reuters.

Alibaba Group CEO also mentioned that the Neighbourhood Retail Unit’s president and human resources head tendered their resignations over the incident and that Alibaba’s chief people officer has “received a demerit”. The memo by Zhang further stated “intimate acts” took place with the employee when she was drunk; adding police investigation in the matter is currently underway.  This memo by Zhang detailed the employee’s account of the incident.

He added that Alibaba is staunchly opposed to the “ugly culture of forced drinking”. In order to avoid such incidents in the future, the company plans to conduct training for prevention of sexual harassment and launch a channel for staff to report such events, Zhang said. The company will also issue a formal, zero-tolerance anti-sexual harassment policy.

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 “Regardless of gender, whether it is a request made by a customer or supervisor, our employees are empowered to reject it,” Zhang said in the memo. He further highlighted this incident is a “humiliation for all Alibaba employees” and that this must change.

The incident became public when a female staffer at the e-commerce giant posted an 11-page account on Alibaba-backed Weibo. She said her supervisor and a client sexually assaulted her on a business trip and that managers failed to take the desired action.

Edited by Mehak Agarwal; with agency inputs

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