Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba Group Holding has fired a female employee who previously accused a co-worker of sexual assault. The employee was dismissed months after her accusations resulted in the termination of the accused, 10 other employees, and the arrest of one of the company's clients.
A report published by state-backed newspaper Dahe Daily said the female employee had received a notice of termination last month. The newspaper published a copy of the termination letter, which stated that she was being fired because her actions had caused a "strong social concern" that had a "bad impact" on the company's reputation.
The letter accused the employee of spreading false information about being assaulted and of the company not handling the case properly. The employee said that she had not made any mistakes, and she was willing to fight the company and use any legal means necessary to protect her rights. The employee has already secured a lawyer to help her with her case.
China's largest e-commerce company was rocked by a sexual assault scandal in August when a female employee alleged that she was sexually assaulted by her co-worker and a client during a business trip. The employee published her account on the company's intranet, which was then made spread online.
In the aftermath of the scandal, Alibaba eventually fired the worker accused of assaulting the female employee. It also fired 10 other employees who were involved in publicizing the incident. Alibaba claimed during that time that it had a "zero-tolerance policy" against sexual misconduct in the workplace. Alibaba's CEO Daniel Zhang said in a statement that he was "shocked" and "ashamed" about what had happened.
A case was filed against the accused employee, but it was later dropped by Chinese prosecutors after he was found guilty of forcible indecency, which wasn't considered a crime. In September, prosecutors approved the arrest of the client involved in the alleged sexual assault.
China and major companies such as Alibaba haven't been spared from the explosion of the "Me Too" movement in 2018. The movement took off in China when a college student in Beijing accused her professor of sexual harassment. Similar cases soon followed, which was in contrast to how such issues were rarely brought up in public before the movement.
In recent weeks, China has once again become enthralled in a sexual assault scandal after Chinese tennis Star Peng Shuai revealed in a Weibo post that she was previously sexually assaulted by a former senior government official.
