Vice Staffers Used Agreement To Get Away With Sexual Harassment, Report Claims

Some Vice staffers used a workplace agreement to justify sexually harassing employees, according to a new report.

New workers at the hipster media company had to sign a "Non-Traditional Workplace Agreement" stating they were okay with the businesses' often racy culture, including its content and office atmosphere, when joining the team.

"I do not find such text, images, or information or the workplace environment at VICE to be offensive, indecent, or disturbing," the document, first reported by The Daily Beast, reads. "I agree to hold VICE harmless from any and all claims I may have based upon VICE's workplace environment or my exposure to specific text, images, or information in the course of my employment with VICE."

More than a dozen former and current staffers told the Daily Beast they were harassed while working for the company, with many of their male colleagues using the agreement "as a joking disclaimer before bad behavior."

"When older men, senior reporters, or managers would hook up with young female reporter after young female reporter, [my manager] would kind of a shrug and say, 'Well, non-traditional workplace environment,'" a former colleague told the website.

But a Vice spokeswoman claimed the document was designed to ensure staffers were comfortable with its content—which includes posts such as "This BDSM Carpenter Builds Furniture for Spanking and Flogging" and "We Asked A Male Porn Star How To Jizz Good"—not to let harassers off the hook.

"A non-traditional workplace agreement is often used by companies to certify employees' comfort with content that could be considered edgy," the spokesperson told Newsweek. "However, it does not in any way sanction conduct that is disrespectful or biased, and we will investigate all allegations of such behavior, including any incidents where employees purportedly attempted to justify their conduct through the agreement. We have immediately begun reviewing this matter."

Although Vice argues it's common for businesses to use similar agreements, one lawyer said she's never come across one during her more than three decades in the field.

"I've been doing this for 31 years, and I have never seen an agreement from an employer like this," said Davida Perry, a New York City lawyer specializing in sexual harassment in the workplace. "It's gross."

And the document wouldn't protect harassers anyway since employers can't ask for their workers to release them from future claims.

The spokesperson refused to say whether employees were required to sign the paper and why they would be asked to scrawl their signatures on it in the first place if it had no legal value. She did say the company has a policy against sexual harassment that employees must adhere to.

"VICE has an employee handbook that spells out in no uncertain terms that we do not tolerate harassment, abusive behavior, assault or retaliation and that all accusations of this nature will be subject to an investigation and, as necessary, action will be taken," the spokesperson said.

The company's co-founder, Shane Smith, told the New York Times he thinks he was given his two daughters "to help me understand the world better."

Smith also bragged in a 2003 book about having sex with advertisers to lure them into buying space in his magazine, the New York Post reported.