評論
打印
Business
商業(yè)報道
Sexual harassment
性騷擾
Nasty, but rarer
齷齪，但是更少了
Still a live issue in the workplace
仍然是職場的熱門話題
THREE women complained of unwanted advances from their boss at the National Restaurant Association.
在全國餐飲協(xié)會，三位女性投訴了來自她們老板的過分殷勤。
Two received financial settlements.
其中兩位已經(jīng)收到了經(jīng)濟補助。
Because the boss in question was Herman Cain, now a Republican presidential hopeful, this news has revived a long-running debate about sexual harassment in the workplace.
因為懷疑老板可能是現(xiàn)在的共和黨總統(tǒng)候選人，赫爾曼.凱恩，這次的新聞重新上演了關于工作場所性騷擾的長期爭論。
The details of the complaints made in the settlements have remained private.
在解決協(xié)議中關于投訴的細節(jié)已經(jīng)被保密了。
A fourth woman who has alleged that Mr Cain groped her was not an employee at the time and did not receive any settlement.
第四位女性聲稱凱恩在非工作期間也曾猥褻她，但她并沒有收到任何解決協(xié)議，
Mr Cain denies that he did anything inappropriate.
而凱恩否認自己做過任何不恰當?shù)男袨椤?/div>
The fact that there has been a settlement does not by itself tell you there was any truth to the allegations,
事實是就算有解決協(xié)議，也并不意味著那些指控就都是真實的。
says Richard Simmons, an employment lawyer at Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton.
一位來自謝帕德的里和漢普頓公司的律師Richard Simmons這樣說道。
Firms often pay off disgruntled accusers rather than go to court, since juries are unpredictable, damages can be steep and the publicity of a trial is always unwelcome.
公司經(jīng)常付清不滿的起訴者的工資，而不愿意去法庭，因為判決是無法預測的，損害可能會更大而且公開的審判總是不被希望的。
Conservatives think the deck is stacked against employers. Liberals disagree.
保守派們認為各方面都對雇主們都是不利的，但是自由黨們并不同意。
Mr Simmons thinks sexual harassment is much less widespread in the American workplace than it was in the 1990s.
Simmons先生認為和20世紀90年代比，性騷擾在美國工作場所的發(fā)生頻率已經(jīng)減少了很多。
The number of harassment cases tracked by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has risen, but this is probably because victims are more likely to report it.
而由平等就業(yè)機會委員記錄的騷擾案例仍然在上升，但這主要可能是因為有更多受害者愿意舉報。
A Supreme Court ruling in 1986 made firms liable if they allow a hostile environment in which harassment is tolerated.
一個在1986年統(tǒng)治的最高法院認為，如果公司可以容忍性騷擾的存在，那么它們要對這樣一個時刻要小心的環(huán)境負責任。
This led to the near-universal adoption of codes of conduct, setting out how coworkers may interact and limiting how bosses may behave towards underlings.
這導致了采用普遍的行為法則，制定出了同事間該如何互動和有哪些被限制的行為以及老板要如何對待下屬的規(guī)定。
Industries such as carmaking and finance, which once produced big sexual-harassment lawsuits, are less male-dominated than before,
像曾經(jīng)提出了大的性騷擾案件的汽車制造業(yè)和金融業(yè)，和過去相比，已經(jīng)不再是那么地以男性為主導了。
which may explain why they appear to have cleaned up their acts.
而這，也可能解釋了為什么他們看起來已經(jīng)不再有這些行為了。
The worst behaviour today tends to be in industries where women are a small minority,
在今天，最惡劣的行為更可能在女性只占小部分的行業(yè)，
such as construction or firefighting, or where workers are disproportionately young or too desperate to complain, says Michelle Caiola of Legal Momentum,
如建筑業(yè)和消防工作，或者在年輕人尤其多的快餐店和因太恐懼而不敢投訴的人身上發(fā)生，來自 Legal Momentum的Michelle Caiola這樣說道，
which provides legal support for women.
而這個機構(gòu)是為女性們提供幫助的。
Lawsuits about gross misconduct have given way to lawsuits alleging discrimination on pay and promotion.
關于惡劣的不法行為的訴訟案件已經(jīng)少于像在工資和職位晉升中受到歧視這樣的案件了，
Such cases typically hinge on different interpretations of statistics rather than differing accounts of what happened by the photocopier.
因為它們通常取決于不同數(shù)據(jù)的解釋，而不是影印機記錄下的不同描述。
Victims often are reluctant to complain, for fear of retaliation.
受害者們通常會因為擔心遭到報復而不愿意舉報。
In the past year, however, the Supreme Court has favoured victims in four cases alleging retaliation after various types of complaint—a rare instance of the current court ruling against business.
但是在過去的這些年里，最高法院已經(jīng)特別照顧了在四起不同控訴中擔心遭到報復的受害者們了。而這，在反對商業(yè)的現(xiàn)代法庭中并不常見。
American business is far from perfect, but it is generally agreed to be leading the way in tackling sexual harassment.
美國的商業(yè)還遠不夠完美，但是在處理性騷擾問題上已經(jīng)有大體上一致的意見了。
Most other countries have a lot of catching up to do.
很多其它國家也趕了上來，
It is only three years since a judge in St Petersburg, Russia, threw out a case on the ground that:
只是在三年前俄羅斯的圣彼得堡的法庭上，一位法官在處理案件的依據(jù)竟然是：
If we had no sexual harassment we would have no children.
要是我們沒有性騷擾，那么我們也就沒有孩子了。
