There are four main issues of Gree's backwardness, namely: corporate behavior, labor management, conflict minerals, and labor treatment standards of the first chain. A top-notch rule is that although companies with high ESG report ratings may not be as perfect as described in the report, there must be various problems with companies with low ratings.
For example, with the recent annual meeting program of "My mother is Dong Mingzhu", Gree Electric Appliances, which has been on the hot search, has previously given a rating of CCC (the worst).
Looking back on the development of Gree Electric in recent years, it has made mobile phones, engaged in new energy vehicles, and entered the real estate ......After a busy circle, he was left behind by his old rivals Midea and Haier.
What's the problem? Take a look at Gree's ESG report (note: Gree still uses an outdated CSR, or corporate social responsibility report, which can barely be regarded as an ESG report), and then compare it with the types of backward issues that MSCI rated Gree, and you will find that everything is traceable.
There are four main issues of Gree's backwardness, namely: corporate behavior, labor management, conflict minerals, and labor treatment standards of the first chain. Ignoring the mineral part, the other three are precisely the parts that Gree has been "complained about" the most and are well-known.
01 There are flaws in employee management, and corporate governance needs to be improved
The first is labor management and labor treatment.
In the CSR report, Gree used a large amount of text to explain the company's "22 years, in the face of the continued external economic downturn, Gree insisted on not laying off employees, not reducing salaries, and demonstrating social responsibility", and emphasized that it paid attention to the needs of employees and did employee assistance and relief work in the part of employee care and welfare.
But this part does not have any practical cases, and the whole article is full of "strengthening", "improving", "continuous optimization"...The words can be understood, but there is a lack of detailed landing cases.
The author briefly did a survey in the Douyin comment area, and the results are as follows: Under the topic of Gree's treatment, I often see people mentioning that "their wages are withheld and not paid, and Gree is famous for squeezing employees, deep routines, and deducting wages".
Although there is no actual report on the treatment of employees in the Gree factory, these negative comments and likes also indicate certain problems.
In addition, although the CSR report mentions that Gree Electric has built a standardized corporate governance structure of "three committees and one layer" in accordance with the current laws and regulations such as the "Company Law" and the "* Law", implemented a scientific and effective corporate governance system and work process, and emphasized "mutual checks and balances, clear rights and responsibilities", and formed a modern corporate governance mechanism with standardized operation.
But in fact, Gree Electric Appliances can't even guarantee the implementation of the provident fund to every employee.
In 2022, a reply to the housing provident fund appeal of the Zhuhai Provident Fund Center showed that someone complained that Gree did not pay the provident fund to employees in full, and the Zhuhai Provident Fund Center confirmed that the situation was true.
For another example, Dong Mingzhu, as the chairman, has repeatedly stated in front of ** that he wants to divide rooms for employees, but so far, no data on room allocation has been published in Gree's CSR reports over the years.
On the contrary, the author found an interesting figure, Gree wrote in the report: "In 2022, a total of 239 condolences will be paid to injured and sick employees, and the condolence funds will reach 4."040,000 yuan. Sunshine Mutual Aid Medical ** assisted 153 people, with a relief amount of about 9090,000 yuan. ”
On average, these 239 people can each get 167 yuan of condolence money, and another 153 people can get 5,882 yuan of relief money, which seems to be disproportionate to Gree's size.
Gree's management loopholes are also reflected in Gree's compulsory consumption of employees, arbitrary dismissal, and Dong Mingzhu's own "one word".
As early as the beginning of 2017, it was revealed that Gree Electric required employees to use Gree mobile phones.
Dong Mingzhu's response to this was: "I just say one word, what if it's forced?" You are my employee, what reason do you have not to use my mobile phone, you have no confidence in your own products, why should you be recognized by the market? ”
Also, Dong Mingzhu's so-called management of Gree employees seems to give the outside world the impression that it is mainly fired.
In Dong Mingzhu's public interview, there are many examples of what she said herself:
1. Dong Mingzhu said that after she became the general manager, she immediately fired all the vice presidents.
2. The employee did not take the sidewalk, entered the traffic lane, and was fired.
3. Gree does not set up trash cans, and employees throw garbage and are directly fired.
4. An administrative staff member was fired for failing to implement the reuse of paper. Dong Mingzhu requires that both sides of a piece of paper be used, and only one side is a waste, and they must be expelled.
5. Employees who do not wear work clothes will be fined and dismissed by the department head. Dong Mingzhu said that Gree is the only one who can not wear work clothes because of work needs.
Anyone who knows a little about labor law knows that any enterprise that has begun to take shape and reputation cannot fire employees at will, let alone Gree, a well-known brand in China.
Some employees couldn't help but post on the Internet to criticize Dong Mingzhu angrily:
At the end of 2021, some members of the Gree Electric team left to start a business through backdoor, and eighty percent of the more than 170 employees in the Philips Air Conditioning China Operation Headquarters came from Gree Electric.
02 There are bright spots in green carbon reduction technology
Objectively speaking, although Gree has a lot of "slots", from the perspective of product energy conservation and environmental protection, it must be admitted that Gree has made some contributions to technological progress and green development.
In the CSR report, Gree also mentioned that in terms of energy recycling, the company has established 6 renewable resource bases to process waste electronic products and automobiles. In 2022, the company processed 6.7 million used household appliances.
There is also the circular development model of "green design-green manufacturing-green development" implemented by Gree, which has reduced mining by 1.81 million tons, saved 4.39 million cubic meters of water, and reduced emissions by about 2.25 million tons.
However, the problem in the report is also obvious: the lack of some key assessment data.
A large manufacturing enterprise like Gree undoubtedly needs a lot of water resources in the production process.
However, Gree only briefly mentioned wastewater treatment in the report, with a special emphasis on the treatment of phosphide in wastewater and solving the problem at the source by upgrading the spraying process, without disclosing any data on water use, such as the amount of sewage, sewage** or water use. Gree also did not mention anything about systemic wastewater management, policies or medium- and long-term goals.
For waste discharge, the report only uses the phrase "from the source of production, the company continues to research and improve the level of governance, and reduces the emission of harmful gases and harmful substances from the source, so as to meet the national standards." At the same time, the management mechanism established by the company can ensure that the discharge of waste meets the national requirements".
The report does not disclose the relevant emissions data, the detailed management process, and the lack of third-party assurance endorsement, and the specific emissions are still a mystery.
03 **Boomerang
In the author's opinion, the biggest risk that Gree is currently facing comes from the misconduct of corporate managers.
MSCI characterizes it as corporate beh**ior, which is a relatively broad concept that includes both corporate fraud and misconduct by top management (which can be understood as "unethical behavior" in the Chinese context).
According to incomplete statistics from the Public Opinion Data Center of People's Daily Online, since 2022, Gree and Gree-related personnel have appeared on the Weibo hot search list 72 times, far ahead of Midea and Haier.
Among them, Dong Mingzhu appeared as many as 37 times. Meng Yutong, a former employee of Gree, was driven by the resignation incident, and the number of related topics reached 23 times. In the TV program interview turmoil in November last year, Wang Ziru, the person in charge of the channel reform project of Gree Electric Appliances, was also frequently mentioned.
The founder highly binds his IP to the company, which is precisely the risk, because as an Internet celebrity entrepreneur, his words and deeds will reflect the company's culture and corporate image at any time.
Dong Mingzhu's previous "traffic" remarks about Meng Yutong, young people's employment, and employee welfare benefits have encountered the current involuted employment environment, and they are becoming a "boomerang", constantly impacting Gree's brand image in the form of surging public opinion.