Alibaba fires manager involved in sexual assault, HR departments given demerits

An Alibaba employee  has been sacked for sexually assaulting a female employee, and the accused has since confessed to having improper "intimate acts" with her, according to multiple media reports. Law enforcement will determine whether the supervisor has committed rape or indecency that violates the law.

A memo written by chairman Daniel Zhang, and reported on South China Morning Post, described the incident as "shameful". Zhang added that the incident was a humiliation for all Alibaba employees, and the incident posed "tremendous sadness for the challenges in Alibaba’s culture". He explained that while the company has to rebuild and change, everyone at Alibaba has to also do so on an individual level. Zhang said that the change must start with him, calling for employees to "wait and watch”. 

In an internal letter sent on early Sunday, Zhang said he was shocked, angered, and ashamed by this incident and demanded a thorough investigation, pledging to cooperate with the police. 

Meanwhile, SCMP which is owned by Alibaba, also said that its president and human resources generalist of Alibaba’s Neighbourhood Retail Business group Li Yonghe and Xu Kun also resigned after the incident broke out for not acting in a timely and appropriate manner when a female employee had first complained that she was sexually assaulted on 27 July. The company's chief people officer Judy Tong was also given a demerit in her records as her department failed to pay enough attention and care to employees during the entire process. 

According to a BBC article, Alibaba said the company would take responsibility for the woman's wellbeing and do everything that the company can to take care of her. Police in Jinan said they were investigating the allegations as the case took place in the city. 

Meanwhile, SCMP also reported that supervisor accused was applying for a new position at ByteDance. ByteDance later confirmed on Monday that it terminated the recruiting process for the Alibaba employee.

The incident first emerged when the female employee posted a letter online stating that an unidentified client molested her, and her supervisor raped her during a business dinner in Jinan on 27 July. BBC's report said that the woman alleged her manager coerced her into travelling to the city of Jinan, about 900km from Alibaba's head office in Hangzhou, for a meeting with a client. During dinner, she was forced to drink an excessive amount of alcohol with colleagues, and on the evening of 27 July, the client kissed her. She then woke up in a hotel room the next day without wearing clothes, and had no memory of the night before. She then obtained surveillance camera footage and realised that her manager had gone into her room four times during the evening.

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