(Yicai Global) Aug. 9 -- Three members of staff have lost their jobs and four have been suspended as Alibaba Group Holding ramps up measures to tackle an allegation of indecent assault by one of its female employees after the Chinese e-commerce giant’s initial lack of response prompted the woman in question to hand out leaflets at the company canteen to raise awareness of her plight, triggering a social media storm.

Alibaba will introduce training to protect employees’ rights and interests including that of sexual harassment and will open a special channel for the reporting of such offences, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Daniel Zhang said today in his second letter in two days about the matter. A special team comprised of experts from outside the company and staff representatives will formulate a code of conduct on the handling of sexual harassment.

A female staff member of Alibaba’s retail business group has claimed that she was forced to drink until she was inebriated on a business trip to Jinan, northeastern Shandong province at the end of last month and was molested by her client and then by her boss. She reported the matter to Alibaba but the company was slow to respond. Shandong police are also investigating the matter.

Yesterday Zhang apologized for the delay in handling the incident which has exposed a disturbing level of indifference at several levels of management and in the human resources department. Four junior managers have been suspended, and the head of the retail business department and the human resource employee involved have resigned. The firm's chief people officer was given a warning. The accused has been dismissed and is under police investigation.

Zhang said he does not support the ugly common practice of drinking with clients, and that his staff have the right to refuse to do so, regardless of whether they are male or female.

Editor: Kim Taylor