Alibaba sets up an all-female committee to combat sexual harassment

After an employee accused his boss of sexual harassment, Alibaba established an all-female committee to investigate misconduct in the workplace.

A committee led by Human Resources Director Jane Jiang Fang and composed of Chief Financial Officer Maggie Wu Wei, Chief Personnel Officer Judy Tong Wenhong, General Counsel Sara Yu Siying and Chief Risk Officer Jessie Zheng Junfang will report directly to the company’s board of directors.

The committee was established after an employee accused his supervisor of rape and requested that his employer be released from control. When her complaint was ignored and no action was taken, she posted a post on Weibo that attracted attention to the company’s policies and became viral.

Alibaba fined $2.78 billion for market abuse

Alibaba was forced to fire managers accused of crimes and punished several executives who failed to deal with them well to prevent the company’s reputation from being dragged into the quagmire. The case exposed the “shameful” work policies of the CEO and chairman of the largest e-commerce company.

The company’s current goal is to establish a “zero tolerance” for sexual harassment and hope to eradicate other inappropriate behaviors such as “forced drinking at the table” and “vulgar jokes”.It assures its employees that it is investigating the issue and is revising its cooperation rulebook, as South China Morning Post.

A working group has been set up to handle complaints of sexual harassment and sexual assault against the company, and a telephone hotline and e-mail mailbox have been set up for direct access. The company promised in the letter that it will provide employees with special training courses to better understand the problem and resist sexual harassment at work.