序列的alphabet_Alphabet就性骚扰指控解决了股东诉讼

序列的alphabet

By Daisuke Wakabayashi

若林大辅

OAKLAND, Calif. — Google’s parent company, Alphabet, has settled a series of shareholder lawsuits over its handling of sexual harassment claims, agreeing to greater oversight by its board of directors in future cases of sexual misconduct and committing to spend $310 million over the next decade on corporate diversity programs.

谷歌的母公司Alphabet已经解决了一系列有关性骚扰指控的股东诉讼，同意在未来的性行为不当案件中对其董事会进行更大的监督，并承诺在下一次支出中花费3.1亿美元公司多元化计划十年。

The settlement, filed Friday in California Superior Court, also said employees would no longer be forced to settle disputes with Alphabet in private arbitration. Workers had demanded that change after details of sexual harassment cases at the company became public two years ago.

周五在加利福尼亚高等法院提起的和解协议还说，员工将不再被迫通过私人仲裁解决与Alphabet的纠纷。 两年前该公司的性骚扰案件细节公开后，工人们要求进行更改。

In addition, Alphabet said it would limit confidentiality restrictions when settling harassment and discrimination cases and ban workplace romances between managers and subordinates.

此外，Alphabet表示，在解决骚扰和歧视案件时将限制机密性限制，并禁止经理与下属之间的工作场所恋情。

The Silicon Valley company was hit by a wave of shareholder lawsuits after The New York Times reported in 2018 that the board of directors had approved a $90 million exit package for a star executive, Andy Rubin, even after an investigation deemed a sexual harassment claim against him credible.

在《纽约时报》于2018年报道董事会已批准向明星高管安迪·鲁宾(Andy Rubin)提供9000万美元的退出方案后，这家硅谷公司受到了一系列股东诉讼的打击，即使在一项调查中，该调查被认为是针对性骚扰的指控他可信。

Five lawsuits in California were eventually consolidated into one case. One of them, brought by James Martin, an Alphabet shareholder, said board members had allowed illegal conduct to proliferate, ignored their fiduciary duties and became enablers of sexual harassment and discrimination.

加州的五宗诉讼最终合并为一宗案件。 其中一位是由Alphabet股东詹姆斯·马丁(James Martin)带来的。他说，董事会成员允许非法行为扩散，不理会其信托义务，并助长了性骚扰和歧视行为。

Other shareholder suits are awaiting action in federal court and in Delaware, where Alphabet is incorporated. The federal cases are on hold pending the outcome of the California suits, while the matter in Delaware is in mediation.

其他股东诉讼正在等待美国联邦法院和在其成立了Alphabet的特拉华州提起诉讼。 在加利福尼亚州的诉讼结果之前，联邦案件暂缓进行，而特拉华州的案件正在调解中。

Julie Goldsmith Reiser, a partner at Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll, one of the firms representing Alphabet shareholders, said the $310 million commitment was meaningful because the tech giant was paying the money directly and it was earmarked to address one of the root problems at the company.

代表Alphabet股东的公司之一Cohen Milstein Sellers＆Toll的合伙人朱莉·戈德史密斯·赖泽(Julie Goldsmith Reiser)表示，3.1亿美元的承诺意义重大，因为这家科技巨头直接支付了这笔钱，并专门用于解决该公司的根本问题之一。公司。

“The settlement fundamentally alters Alphabet’s workplace policies,” Reiser said. “It feels like we’ve given the company the tools to become a better workplace.”

“和解协议从根本上改变了Alphabet的工作场所政策，” Reiser说。 “感觉就像我们已经为公司提供了改善工作场所的工具。”

So-called shareholder derivative lawsuits have sprung up in the wake of “Me Too” revelations of sexual misconduct by executives or prominent employees as a way to try to hold companies accountable.

在高管或杰出雇员对性行为不当的“我也”揭露之后，所谓的股东派生诉讼就如雨后春笋般出现，以此来试图使公司承担责任。

In similar lawsuits at 21st Century Fox and Wynn Resorts, the damages won by shareholders were paid out by insurers to the companies, instead of to the individuals who sued.

在21世纪Fox和Wynn Resorts的类似诉讼中，股东赢得的赔偿金是由保险公司支付给公司的，而不是支付给起诉的个人的。

After a sexual harassment scandal at its Fox News division, 21st Century Fox agreed to a settlement that included a $90 million payment from insurers and the formation of an advisory committee to improve its workplace culture.

在其福克斯新闻部门的性骚扰丑闻发生后，21st Century Fox同意了一项和解协议，其中包括从保险公司支付9000万美元，并成立了一个咨询委员会以改善其工作场所文化。

The settlement with Alphabet also does not direct money to the people who sued, but it does steer funding and policies to prevent the bad behavior from recurring. Reiser hailed it for setting a new level of corporate governance and accountability, as well as a standard for the rest of the technology industry. The level of board involvement and executive accountability, she said, “goes far beyond what we’ve seen in other settlements.”

与Alphabet达成的和解协议也不会将钱直接转给被起诉的人，但确实会引导资金和政策以防止不良行为再次发生。 Reiser赞扬它为公司治理和问责制设定了新的水平，并为其余技术行业制定了标准。 她说，董事会参与程度和高管人员问责制“远远超出了其他和解方案中所见。”

As the lawsuits started piling up, Alphabet’s board created a committee of independent directors to investigate the claims, interviewing current and former directors and employees. After the review, the committee determined that it should try to resolve the claims, according to the settlement. Alphabet and its directors denied any wrongdoing in the document laying out the agreement.

随着诉讼开始堆积，Alphabet董事会成立了一个独立董事委员会，负责调查索赔，并采访现任和前任董事及雇员。 根据和解协议，审查后，委员会决定应尝试解决这些索赔。 Alphabet及其董事否认在安排协议的文件中有任何不当行为。

The company has undergone a significant changing of the guard in the last few years. Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who founded Google more than two decades ago, stepped down from a day-to-day role at the company in late 2019.

在过去的几年中，公司发生了重大变化。 拉里·佩奇(Larry Page)和二十多年前创立Google的谢尔盖·布林(Sergey Brin)在2019年末卸任该公司的日常职务。

David Drummond, a longtime company lawyer who kept his job even after details of an extramarital relationship he had with a woman who worked for him became public, left Alphabet this year. Eric Schmidt, the former chief executive, who was known to appear at company events with women he was seeing in extramarital relationships, left the board in 2019.

戴维·德拉蒙德(David Drummond)是一位长期的公司律师，即使与一名为他工作的妇女发生婚外关系的细节公开后，他仍保留了自己的工作，今年就离开了Alphabet 。 前首席执行官埃里克·施密特(Eric Sc​​hmidt)于2019年离开董事会，前首席执行官埃里克·施密特(Eric Sc​​hmidt)曾与在婚外恋中见过的女性一起参加公司活动。

“Recent years have involved a lot of introspection and work to make sure we’re providing a safe and inclusive workplace,” Eileen Naughton, vice president of Google’s people operations, wrote in a blog post on the company’s website. “I’m grateful to everyone, especially our employees and shareholders, for providing us with feedback, and for making sure that the way we tackle these vital issues is better today than it was in the past.”

Google人员运营副总裁Eileen Naughton在公司网站上的博客中写道：“最近几年，我们进行了大量的内省和工作，以确保我们提供一个安全，包容的工作场所。” “我感谢所有人，特别是我们的员工和股东，向我们提供反馈，并确保我们解决这些重要问题的方式今天比过去更好。”

As part of the settlement, Alphabet agreed to form an advisory council focused on diversity, equality and inclusion made up of four executives — including Sundar Pichai, the chief executive — and three outside experts including Nancy Gertner, a retired federal judge. The group will take on a wide range of issues, including hiring and retention, compensation, and how the company responds to and investigates employee complaints.

作为和解的一部分，Alphabet同意成立一个专注于多元化，平等和包容性的咨询委员会，该委员会由四名高管组成，包括首席执行官Sundar Pichai，由三名外部专家组成，其中包括退休的联邦法官Nancy Gertner。 该小组将处理广泛的问题，包括雇用和保留，薪酬以及公司如何应对和调查员工投诉。

In addition, Alphabet’s board will receive more information about how the company is handling claims of sexual harassment, discrimination and retaliation, and directors will receive regular reports on the compensation of any senior executives found to have engaged in serious misconduct.

此外，Alphabet董事会还将收到有关该公司如何处理性骚扰，歧视和报复的更多信息，董事将收到定期报告，报告发现任何从事严重渎职行为的高级管理人员将获得报酬。

Shortly after the report about the payouts to Rubin and other Google executives accused of sexual misconduct, 20,000 workers staged a walkout demanding changes to how the company treats employees. In response, Google agreed to stop forced arbitration in individual cases of sexual harassment or assault. It later expanded the policy to all employee disputes with the company.

关于向鲁宾和其他Google高管指控的性不当行为报酬的报告不久之后，有20,000名工人举行了罢工，要求改变公司对待员工的方式。 作为回应，Google同意在个别性骚扰或性侵犯案件中停止强制仲裁。 后来，该政策扩展到了与公司有关的所有员工纠纷。

Alphabet said it would now extend the policy to its 11 other subsidiaries, like the self-driving car company Waymo. Some of those businesses have thousands of employees.

Alphabet表示现在将把这项政策扩展到其他11家子公司，例如自动驾驶汽车公司Waymo。 其中一些企业拥有数千名员工。

Google employees will no longer be bound to nondisclosure agreements preventing them from discussing the underlying facts or circumstances of incidents when settling sexual harassment and retaliation claims. Alphabet said it would “encourage” its subsidiaries to do the same but was not requiring the change.

Google员工将不再受保密协议的约束，从而可以避免他们在解决性骚扰和报复性索赔时讨论事件的基本事实或情况。 Alphabet表示将“鼓励”其子公司这样做，但不需要进行更改。

In an attempt to address past problems of executives dating subordinates, Alphabet said, it has changed its workplace romance policy so that managers are no longer allowed to date employees they supervise. The previous policy “strongly discouraged” such relationships.

Alphabet表示，为了解决高管人员与下属约会的问题，该公司已更改了工作场所恋爱政策，以便不再允许管理人员与他们所监督的雇员约会。 先前的政策“强烈劝阻”这种关系。

Alphabet also agreed that employees who are being investigated over claims of sexual misconduct, sexual harassment or retaliation when they depart Google will not receive severance or other compensation. That is already the case for employees fired for misconduct. Under the new policy, even if an employee is not fired, the misconduct will be taken into account in determining his or her severance, the company said.

Alphabet还同意，在离开Goog​​le时因性行为不端，性骚扰或报复而受到调查的员工将不会获得遣散费或其他补偿。 对于因不当行为而被解雇的雇员来说，情况已经如此。 该公司表示，根据新政策，即使不解雇员工，在确定其离职时也将考虑不当行为。

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翻译自: https://medium.com/the-new-york-times/alphabet-settles-shareholder-suits-over-sexual-harassment-claims-7afa4478cb8f

序列的alphabet