Die dunkle Seite der Ems-Chemie (Artikel-Serie)
27.12.2023
Swiss Press Award 24 Text – E – Thomas Schlittler
Ruthless Corporate Management
SonntagsBlick
2024
Thomas Schlittler
2nd place 2024
At the Blocher family’s EMS Group, success trumps all other considerations. When a significant decline in sales made itself apparent towards the end of 2023, an investigation
not only revealed contradictions in the company’s termination practices, but also a “dilapidated” infrastructure “due to cost-cutting madness”. An internal report revealed various health and safety deficiencies and the number of industrial accidents was above average. An employment law specialist declares the mandatory medical exam for prospective employees to be legally questionable. And leaked emails reveal how the human resources department ensured that negative posts on an online platform for employee feedback were deleted. This “dark side of EMS Group” is embedded into the leadership principles, which became infamous following a documentary film about Magdalena Martullo- Blocher: To this day, managerial employees have to know the “Seven Thinking Steps” off by heart.
Comment from EMS-CHEMIE AG: "EMS contradicted the allegations made in the articles mentioned and emphasized that EMS invests 20 - 30 million francs annually (also in 2023) in the infrastructure and maintenance, that the internal report cited is cleanliness and not lists safety deficiencies, that the systems mentioned therein were being converted or expanded at the time, that EMS takes occupational safety very seriously and therefore meticulously records every little thing - every adhesive plaster, every small cut, every scrape, every stumble - that the initial medical examination in the within the framework of the pension fund's non-mandatory insurance benefits and that EMS naturally corrects publicly published untrue statements of fact."