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Business
商业报道
Sexual harassment
性骚扰
Nasty, but rarer
龌龊，但是更少了
Still a live issue in the workplace
仍然是职场的热门话题
THREE women complained of unwanted advances from their boss at the National Restaurant Association.
在全国餐饮协会，三位女性投诉了来自她们老板的过分殷勤。
Two received financial settlements.
其中两位已经收到了经济补助。
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.
因为怀疑老板可能是现在的共和党总统候选人，赫尔曼.凯恩，这次的新闻重新上演了关于工作场所性骚扰的长期争论。
The details of the complaints made in the settlements have remained private.
在解决协议中关于投诉的细节已经被保密了。
A fourth woman who has alleged that Mr Cain groped her was not an employee at the time and did not receive any settlement.
第四位女性声称凯恩在非工作期间也曾猥亵她，但她并没有收到任何解决协议，
Mr Cain denies that he did anything inappropriate.
而凯恩否认自己做过任何不恰当的行为。
The fact that there has been a settlement does not by itself tell you there was any truth to the allegations,
事实是就算有解决协议，也并不意味着那些指控就都是真实的。
says Richard Simmons, an employment lawyer at Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton.
一位来自谢帕德的里和汉普顿公司的律师Richard Simmons这样说道。
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.
公司经常付清不满的起诉者的工资，而不愿意去法庭，因为判决是无法预测的，损害可能会更大而且公开的审判总是不被希望的。
Conservatives think the deck is stacked against employers. Liberals disagree.
保守派们认为各方面都对雇主们都是不利的，但是自由党们并不同意。
Mr Simmons thinks sexual harassment is much less widespread in the American workplace than it was in the 1990s.
Simmons先生认为和20世纪90年代比，性骚扰在美国工作场所的发生频率已经减少了很多。
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.
而由平等就业机会委员记录的骚扰案例仍然在上升，但这主要可能是因为有更多受害者愿意举报。
A Supreme Court ruling in 1986 made firms liable if they allow a hostile environment in which harassment is tolerated.
一个在1986年统治的最高法院认为，如果公司可以容忍性骚扰的存在，那么它们要对这样一个时刻要小心的环境负责任。
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.
这导致了采用普遍的行为法则，制定出了同事间该如何互动和有哪些被限制的行为以及老板要如何对待下属的规定。
Industries such as carmaking and finance, which once produced big sexual-harassment lawsuits, are less male-dominated than before,
像曾经提出了大的性骚扰案件的汽车制造业和金融业，和过去相比，已经不再是那么地以男性为主导了。
which may explain why they appear to have cleaned up their acts.
而这，也可能解释了为什么他们看起来已经不再有这些行为了。
The worst behaviour today tends to be in industries where women are a small minority,
在今天，最恶劣的行为更可能在女性只占小部分的行业，
such as construction or firefighting, or where workers are disproportionately young or too desperate to complain, says Michelle Caiola of Legal Momentum,
如建筑业和消防工作，或者在年轻人尤其多的快餐店和因太恐惧而不敢投诉的人身上发生，来自 Legal Momentum的Michelle Caiola这样说道，
which provides legal support for women.
而这个机构是为女性们提供帮助的。
Lawsuits about gross misconduct have given way to lawsuits alleging discrimination on pay and promotion.
关于恶劣的不法行为的诉讼案件已经少于像在工资和职位晋升中受到歧视这样的案件了，
Such cases typically hinge on different interpretations of statistics rather than differing accounts of what happened by the photocopier.
因为它们通常取决于不同数据的解释，而不是影印机记录下的不同描述。
Victims often are reluctant to complain, for fear of retaliation.
受害者们通常会因为担心遭到报复而不愿意举报。
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.
但是在过去的这些年里，最高法院已经特别照顾了在四起不同控诉中担心遭到报复的受害者们了。而这，在反对商业的现代法庭中并不常见。
American business is far from perfect, but it is generally agreed to be leading the way in tackling sexual harassment.
美国的商业还远不够完美，但是在处理性骚扰问题上已经有大体上一致的意见了。
Most other countries have a lot of catching up to do.
很多其它国家也赶了上来，
It is only three years since a judge in St Petersburg, Russia, threw out a case on the ground that:
只是在三年前俄罗斯的圣彼得堡的法庭上，一位法官在处理案件的依据竟然是：
If we had no sexual harassment we would have no children.
要是我们没有性骚扰，那么我们也就没有孩子了。
