Apparently the contract that Harvey Weinstein had with The Weinstein Company has specific allowances for “misconduct” and he has a strong case for wrongful termination. It makes clear how little they thought of his misconduct since all he had to do was pay any costs incurred by the company and then a fine which would have been quite small to him ($250k, $500k, $750k and $1m thereafter). No problem, just write a check dude!
https://www.inc.com/erik-sherman/harvey-weinsteins-ultimate-enabler-is-his-employment-contract-says-a-new-report.html
On top of that, the board members are likely to be sued by stockholders (the Weinstein brothers only own 42%) because they neglected to address Harvey’s “misconduct”. Given the terms of his contract and the fact that they knew of at least 3 of the private settlements he had made, I think they are in pretty hot soup though I’m not a lawyer. (They claim they believed the settlements were for consensual relationships.) The magnitude of the consequences of this case to the company and the directors should have far-reaching influences.
https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/10/harvey-weinstein-company-legal-consequences/542838/
I always thought we had to make improvements in reporting and the justice system before anything would get better but I could not have been more wrong!
There are a lot of other things happening including Hollywood women sharing their stories at what would otherwise have been a light-hearted gathering, the Weinstein Company employees releasing a letter, a twitter movement of men promising change and more. I didn’t even know that legislation has been proposed in the past to exempt sexual crimes and discrimination from arbitration and confidentiality agreements (hopefully it will pass now!). And I read somewhere but can’t find the link, that there are financing companies standing in line to front the money for lawsuits against Harvey by the women who have come out about his abuse of them.
To quote another article:
The Nassars and the Weinsteins of the world who haven’t been outed yet should be worried about “Me Too.” Because now that women can see that they’re not alone, more will speak up, because so many of them have stories to tell. Like me.
Without the boldness of so many other women, as so many of them join hands to pull back the curtain on this problem, I still might have preferred to say nothing.
That silence is exactly what abusers are counting on. They can’t count on it anymore.
To read it all: www.nytimes.com/…
This is one cat that is not going to go back in the bag.
I honestly never thought I would see the day and I certainly didn’t see it coming this way… it will take time, a lot of time, but things will be getting better – for women, men and children – because we, as a society, are deciding not to allow it any more, to finally blame the perpetrator instead of the victim, and to protect the vulnerable instead of the powerful. Amazing.
I didn’t realize how smothered I have felt for decades until I felt the relief of seeing all of this. I am so glad things will be better for later generations.