The layoff female general manager again exposed the sexual harassment of Ali Taotian Group in the workplace

DoNews reported on April 18 that a long article "Alibaba Taotian Group's Complete Record of Workplace Bullying" circulated on the Internet. According to the long article, an employee who identified himself as the former Ali Auction-Commercial Institution team of Alibaba Taotian Group (Alibaba Auction is now renamed Alibaba Assets) has experienced five years of unfair treatment since joining the company on December 10, 2018, involving "'backstabbing', workplace sexual harassment, physical bullying and verbal bullying."

A reporter from China Securities Journal contacted the author of the long article and confirmed that the long article was written and published by Nancy (pseudonym), the "victim employee" mentioned in the article. Nancy said that "the content of the long article is true". Nancy told reporters that she had just been forcibly terminated by Ali Assets a few days ago, and served as the general manager of Ali Assets' national real estate business during her tenure.

Chen Huiming, who was accused of sexual harassment by Nancy, did not make a clear statement in response to a telephone interview with a reporter from China Securities Journal on the grounds that there was no evidence in the long article. According to public information, Chen Huiming is currently the vice president of Alibaba Assets.

Lu Weixing, one of the parties mentioned in the other long article, did not directly deny the accusations against him in a telephone interview with a reporter from the China Securities Journal, but only asked the reporter to ask the company.

According to public information, Lu Weixing used to be the vice president of Alibaba Group, and concurrently served as the general manager of Ali's asset division and the general manager of Ali's auction division.

This is not the first time Alibaba has faced the problem of "workplace sexual harassment". The reporter of "China Securities Journal" repeatedly asked Alibaba Taotian Group to verify whether the allegations of the long article were true, but did not receive a reply as of press time.

Ali's laid-off female employee revealed that she was sexually harassed, and her internal report was fruitless

On the evening of April 15, Nancy released the "Complete Record of Workplace Bullying of Alibaba Taotian Group", exposing the workplace bullying plot within Alibaba Taotian Group, and the long article quickly spread and fermented on the Internet.

The long article shows that between 2019 and 2023, P9 (rank) Chen Huiming (nickname "Shui Kuo"), as the superior leader of the whistleblower Nancy, repeatedly sexually harassed Nancy explicitly or implicitly in exchange for job security, and asked Nancy to send her home and go to her home alone to drink a second time after many parties or invited customers to dinner, causing Nancy to be in an anxious and restless mental state during this period.

Nancy said that during this period, she "stupidly chose to forbear" for the sake of work.

She revealed that in 2023, Chen Huiming will invite Nancy to drink alone at home again. This time, Nancy complained to Ali Auction P8 (rank) HRG (human resources commissioner) Song Yuanyuan (nickname "Liangyuan"). Song Yuanyuan delayed intervening many times, and even hinted that these are the normal culture of the workplace and even Ali, and do not belong to sexual harassment.

In response to Nancy's accusations of sexual harassment in Chen Huiming's workplace, the reporter interviewed Chen Huiming by phone. Chen Huiming said that he saw a long article on the Internet. But when the reporter asked whether the accusation in his long article that he sexually harassed Nancy was true, Chen Huiming asked the reporter rhetorically, "Do you think it is true for nonsense without evidence." Subsequently, Chen Huiming said that it was inconvenient to continue the conversation with reporters on the train, and hung up the phone.

The reporter noticed that there were still public reports on the Internet that Chen Huiming carried out normal work in Alibaba Group on April 11.

Report and be reported

According to Nancy, she was also bullied by many colleagues during her work, and the company's HR (human resources) had a passive attitude of intervention. Long-term bullying and inconclusive internal reporting caused Nancy to have serious psychological problems, causing her to commit suicide by "cutting her wrists + swallowing nearly 40 pills", and she is now out of danger of life.

Nancy listed four incidents in the long article, which involved "being beaten by a P10 (rank) supervisor for a complaint by team member Zhan Meiling (nickname 'Lingcan') in a customer dispute", "repeatedly giving feedback to HR 'Liangyuan' to no avail", "being 'backstabbed' by 'Libao members' Lingcan and Cai Lele (nickname 'Iron Shoulder')" and "The factual defense was truncated and blocked during the Taotian investigation, and was continuously pressured by the person who maliciously reported it".

The reporter further learned from Nancy that the P10 supervisor who was accused of beating her was Lu Weixing. The reporter interviewed Lu Weixing by phone, and when answering the reporter's question about whether he beat Nancy and whether there was any benefit transfer with Nancy, he said: "It is inconvenient for me to answer, it is better to ask the company about this matter, and they will definitely have a unified reply." ”

In response to the "backstabbing", the long article mentioned that Zhan Meiling was a member of Nancy's team, and Nancy was beaten by her superiors because she had argued for Zhan Meiling in the customer robbery incident. In the three years since Zhan Meiling transferred to Ali Auction, Nancy has always trusted, reused, and promoted her.

And Zhan Meiling suddenly informed Nancy that she would marry another team member, "Iron Shoulder" (Cai Lele). Nancy then contacted HRG (Human Resources Commissioner) Song Yuanyuan to transfer Cai Lele to Tmall Haofang according to the procedure. But then, Ms. Zhan's relationship with Nancy's colleagues deteriorated.

"Zhan Meiling openly provoked me at a company meeting and had a fierce conflict with me. Not only that, at the end of December 2023, Zhan Meiling actually made a real-name complaint (internal report) against me and even the then head of the auction 'Yidao' (Lu Weixing) at the group level. According to insiders, the participants in the plot include Chen Huiming, who has been attempting sexual harassment, Zhan Meiling's husband Cai Lele, Yang Yanan and others. Nancy said in a long article.

Nancy said that during this period, she repeatedly told HR (human resources) that she suffered from bipolar disorder and depression, and was deeply troubled by Zhan Meiling's behavior, "but HR not only did not have any communication with the parties, but blindly delayed and told that normal business can be carried out, and Zhan continued to be arrogant!"

In response to Zhan Meiling's report on Nancy's content, Nancy responded to reporters: "I said that I took customers to nightclubs, but it was actually her husband who paid for it, but said that it was my designated service provider." And so on and so forth. ”

Since then, Nancy has been deeply involved in whistleblowing until she was laid off while on sick leave. "The company later intervened in the investigation, but the company thought it was all my problem, and my subordinates had no problems at all, so I was dismissed. I felt so unjust that I couldn't think of committing suicide.

What's more, HRG Song Yuanyuan turned off my intranet access while I was on sick leave, so I couldn't communicate through the intranet, couldn't reimburse, and couldn't exercise my stock rights. Nancy told reporters that on March 28, she found that she could no longer log in to the intranet because she wanted to renew her sick leave through the intranet, so her lawyer went to the company to communicate, and the company refused to accept the lawyer on the grounds that "she did not initiate arbitration". The day after the lawyer left, Song Yuanyuan informed Nancy by phone that he wanted to terminate his employment contract. "Song Yuanyuan asked me to come to the company, and they suspected that I was traveling during my sick leave and wanted to forcibly terminate the labor contract. I did go to Shanghai to relax, and the doctor's advice did not advise me to stay in the hospital all the time. Nancy said.

The reporter also called the office numbers of Zhan Meiling, Cai Lele, Song Yuanyuan, Li Ran and others, but the phone could not be connected.

In addition, Nancy attached a photo of herself after being beaten and a photo of herself being treated in a hospital after committing suicide.

As a personal narrative, there are still many details in the long essay that are unclear.

Alibaba's "anti-sexual harassment in the workplace" has a long way to go

This is not the first time Alibaba has faced "workplace sexual harassment" and "workplace bullying" scandals.

In 2021, Alibaba's "807 incident" has attracted widespread attention from the society. At that time, a female Alibaba employee complained that she had been abused by a customer and her boss during a business trip, and after the incident, she reported it within the company but was treated perfunctorily.

On August 9, 2021, Alibaba announced the results of the phased internal investigation and handling decision of "female employees were violated": the president of the retail business group and the HRG (human resources specialist) in the same city resigned, and Tong Wenhong, the chief human resources officer of Alibaba, was punished with a demerit, and the suspected male employees Wang Mouwen and Zhang were dismissed and never hired.

On September 6, 2021, the People's Procuratorate of Huaiyin District, Jinan City, Shandong Province, after review in accordance with law, found that the forcible indecent acts carried out by criminal suspect Wang Mouwen did not constitute a crime and did not approve his arrest. On June 22, 2022, the first-instance verdict in Zhang's forced indecency case was announced, and Zhang was sentenced to one year and six months in prison for the crime of forcible indecency.

In response to the incident, Daniel Zhang, then chairman and CEO of Alibaba, announced three aspects of reflection and action within Alibaba: First, carry out training and investigation on the protection of employees' rights and interests, including sexual harassment, and open a special reporting channel.

Employees' reports will be followed up by a dedicated person on the premise of ensuring that their privacy is fully protected. Second, there is zero tolerance for sexual harassment, and the Anti-Sexual Harassment Code of Action is jointly developed by external experts and employee representatives. Third, Alibaba has taken a clear stand against the ugly culture of accompanying alcohol, regardless of gender, and unconditionally supports employees to refuse to accompany alcohol.

On the evening of August 8, 2021, Aliren helped Aliren release the "Joint Initiative of 6,000 Ali People on the 807 Incident", suggesting the establishment of an anti-sexual harassment system in the workplace and strict investigation of the incident process. The initiative mentions that the female colleague concerned has failed to appeal to the court, the canteen has been expelled to defend their rights, and the senior management and related personnel have delayed the processing, which shows the systemic loopholes in the company's organizational governance and the lack of a mechanism to protect the rights and interests of female employees.

Daniel Zhang said at the time: "Behind this phenomenon is a major problem in the construction of the company's HR culture system and capabilities. ”

"It's not terrible to make mistakes, no one doesn't make mistakes, what is really terrible is not knowing mistakes, not admitting mistakes, and not correcting mistakes. As Jack Ma said.