Labor Rights and Interests

VNET respects and safeguards employees’ rights and interests, values their physical and mental health as well as welfare, and is committed to creating a diverse, equal, and inclusive workplace. We implement a sustainable talent development strategy, providing a platform that promotes both career development and personal growth. We work together with employees to create and share the success of the Company’s development, jointly driving the Company forward. To better meet the actual needs of our employees, the Group has fully updated the VNET Employee Handbook and related policies, soliciting feedback and suggestions from all employees. The revision process strictly followed standardized procedures including trade union review and democratic deliberation, ensuring the democracy, transparency, and compliance of the update.

As a participant of the UN Global Compact (UNGC), VNET fully understands and respects international treaties including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the Ten Principles of the UN Global Compact, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the International Labour Organization’s Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, and the Core Labour Standards, and complies with relevant laws and regulations in the jurisdictions where we operate. We continuously improve internal management systems to safeguard labor rights.

The Group has formulated and issued the Labor Rights Protection Policy, which clarifies the process for identifying and managing labor rights risks and standardizes the grievance and corrective procedures. We have established a human rights due diligence process including human rights commitment, human rights risk identification and assessment, risk mitigation and remediation, and improvement tracking and reporting. In 2025, there were no incidents of discrimination, harassment, forced labor, or child labor within VNET.

Talent Attraction and Retention

Talent Recruitment

VNET fully understands that attracting and retaining outstanding talent is crucial to an enterprise. We adhere to the recruitment principles of fairness, justice, and transparency, and firmly oppose any form of employment discrimination based on ethnicity, race, gender, region, or religious beliefs, proactively creating an equal and inclusive atmosphere for talent growth.

The Group attracts outstanding talent from diverse backgrounds and promotes social employment through multiple recruitment channels, including campus recruitment, external recruitment, employee referrals, school-enterprise cooperation, and management trainee programs. At the same time, we continue to deepen our digital transformation in hiring while rigorously complying with established recruitment procedures. By leveraging AI technologies to empower the end-to-end recruitment process, we improve the recruitment efficiency and the candidate experience.

Performance and Incentive

VNET has established a comprehensive rank structure and standardized promotion mechanism, ensuring equal opportunities for all employees. Through the formalized position and rank management procedure, career development paths are clearly defined, allowing employees to choose their growth trajectory based on personal career plans, enabling them to realize their full potential.

We value the long-term performance of our employees and manage their promotions from multiple perspectives based on five core principles: organizational development needs, competency, performance, value alignment, fairness and equality.

The Group has formulated the VNET Employee Performance Management Regulations and established a multi-level strategic performance management system. Employees are annually evaluated through various methods such as management by objectives, multidimensional performance appraisal, performance calibration, and agile conversations. Performance results and improvement plans are communicated to employees promptly. In 2025, performance evaluations or assessments covered 100% of employees (including full-time and part-time employees).

• ◇ Management by objectives: The Group organizes all teams to break down objectives hierarchically based on the annual strategy and goals and sets personal business objectives on this basis.

• ◇ Team-based performance appraisal: Team performance is assessed based on the achievement of performance targets and cross-team collaboration. Performance appraisal results of team members include both the team performance and the individuals’ competencies and contributions.

• ◇ Multidimensional performance appraisal: We conduct 360-degree assessments using specialized tools that incorporate feedback from superiors, peers, subordinates, and self-evaluations. The assessment process combines feedback with team performance results to ensure scientific, objective, and fair evaluations.

• ◇ Performance calibration: Conducting centralized review of employee performance outcomes through horizontal benchmarking to ensure consistent and equitable evaluation standards across teams and functi

• ◇ Agile conversations: Through diverse communication channels, including email, employee forums, and trade unions, we maintain timely and seamless dialogue with employees in daily operations.

We ensure transparent communication of performance evaluation results to every employee and provide all staff with annual bonuses, special project bonuses, instant incentives, and long-term incentive programs based on performance outcomes.

Welfare and Care

VNET strictly complies with the relevant laws and regulations of the regions where it operates and ensures full and timely payment of all mandatory social insurance. We fully respect employees’ entitlement to leave, guaranteeing their access to paid annual leave and ensuring uninterrupted social insurance coverage during leave periods. We continuously optimize the employee benefits system, extending supplementary social security measures beyond statutory requirements and providing all employees with diverse non-remuneration benefits such as exclusive benefits, special gifts, themed holidays, recreation, and health and safety. Annual health checkups are available to all employees, and commercial medical insurance extends coverage to employees and their families, fostering a positive, energetic team atmosphere and a caring, family-oriented workplace culture.

To further standardize benefits management and strengthen compliance, the Company has officially issued the VNET Employee Benefits Management Policy, ensuring the standardization, compliance, and continuity of benefits programs and delivering stable, predictable, and comprehensive support to employees.

• Employee Supplementary Benefits

• ◇ Exclusive benefits: staff cafeteria, allowance, care for frontline workers, care credit points, etc.

• ◇ Special gifts: birthday gifts, customized uniforms, etc.

• ◇ Special holidays: extra annual leave, additional holiday leave, Children’s Day parental leave, etc.

• ◇ Recreation: staff club, library, etc.

• ◇ Health and safety: paid sick leave, health checkups, supplementary medical insurance, free gym, etc.

• Employee Support Program

• ◇ Flexible working: We fully consider employees’ childcare needs, strictly implement the parental leave policy, provide parental leave for employees who serve as primary caregivers (such as parents), and offer flexible working hours for female employees during their breastfeeding period.

• ◇ Care program: We provide personalized care and support by establishing psychological counseling rooms that offer employees professional and confidential mental health services, helping them address both life- and work-related challenges. We also regularly organize diverse parent-child activities to strengthen family-oriented care for employees.

• ◇ Breastfeeding facilities: We set up a breastfeeding room equipped with access control and blackout curtains, providing breastfeeding employees with a private and comfortable environment.

• ◇ Assistance subsidies: The Group’s Trade Unions and the “Mutual-Aid Fund” founded by the 21Vianet Blue Cloud’s Employee Committee provide aid and subsidies to employees who encounter emergencies or unexpected difficulties.

• ◇ Sports activities: We regularly organize a variety of sports activities, including basketball, football, table tennis, swimming, badminton, and fitness training, to enhance the physical health of employees, foster team collaboration, alleviate work-related stress, and continuously enhance their job satisfaction and overall workplace well-being.

Employee Communication

VNET prioritizes employee communication as a key aspect of corporate management and is committed to cultivating a healthy and well-structured communication environment. The Group actively promotes democratic management and respects and supports employees in exercising their rights to freedom of expression, freedom of association, and collective bargaining. Through the Trade Union Committee, the Women Workers’ Committee, and with the support of external professionals, the Group safeguards employees’ rights to information, participation, privacy, expression and oversight. These efforts foster a communication environment that is transparent, constructive, and rooted in integrity.

The Group further reinforces the supervision to protect employees’ rights and interests. The Trade Union Committee, as the official employee representative body, participates in policymaking concerning their core interests while maintaining regular dialogue with management to propose recommendations in multiple areas, including diversity, occupational health and safety, working conditions, and employee welfare. The Committee, on behalf of employees, executes collective bargaining agreements including a collective labor contract and a specialized agreement on women’s protection and other collective negotiation documents, which cover 100% of the employees, to enhance the employee rights protection system.

The Group has established formal communication and grievance mechanisms and set up a labor dispute mediation office. Employees may submit anonymous or identifiable complaints, appeals, and suggestions regarding workplace harassment, bullying, unfair treatment, and conflict through various channels such as the whistleblower email, hotline, Trade Union mailbox, and face-to-face consultations. Direct communication options are also available through the Trade Union Committee, HR representatives, department heads, or cross-functional/hierarchical leaders. For grievances requiring investigation, formal inquiry protocols will be promptly initiated, with investigation processes and resolution outcomes escalated directly to executive management and the Board of Directors. In disciplinary cases, employees retain statutory rights to appeal if they believe issues were unresolved or improperly addressed.

The Group conducts annual satisfaction surveys covering all employees with an in-depth analysis and ongoing monitoring of survey outcomes to gain comprehensive insights into employees’ authentic feedback and sentiments. We highly value and adopt valuable suggestions proposed by employees to promote continuous improvement. In 2025, we carried out the anonymous satisfaction survey, evaluating dimensions such as employee engagement, purpose, happiness, and stress. The overall satisfaction rate achieved 93%, demonstrating exceptional performance in employee engagement.

Diversity, Equality and Inclusion

VNET has always been committed to creating a diverse, equal, and, inclusive workplace. The Group strictly adheres to the equality principle across all management processes, including recruitment, performance evaluations, incentives, and training, and firmly opposes employment discrimination based on ethnicity, race, gender, region, and religion. Additionally, we advocate for the equal employment of persons with disabilities and provide them with comprehensive salary and welfare guarantees.

As a global signatory of the Women’s Empowerment Principles, we actively implement gender-equality policies and are committed to joining hands with global enterprises to promote gender equality and women empowerment. By the end of 2025, female employees accounted for 26% of the total workforce, and the percentage of female employees in management positions was 31%.

The Group continues to advance the “V-Can” Gender Equality Action Plan. By organizing special training sessions, cultural activities, etc., we encourage all employees to break down gender biases in the workplace, create a fair and equitable environment, and support more female professionals to become the backbone of the IDC industry. For the 2025 International Women’s Day, we launched the thematic campaign “Celebrating Her Power, Spreading Warmth and Care”, featuring a charity bazaar and professional image & makeup workshops, thus, creating platforms for women to shine both professionally and socially.

VNET consistently ensures the fairness and reasonableness of its compensation management. We scientifically determine salary standards based on local cost-of-living benchmarks and regularly assess whether employee compensation meets minimum subsistence requirements. The Group also conducts periodic market salary benchmarking to refine our compensation system and offer market-competitive pay. We firmly exclude gender and any other improper factors from compensation decisions, annually monitor gender pay gaps, and align individual rewards with value creation through performance evaluations and multidimensional feedback mechanisms—ensuring all employees enjoy equal rights and opportunities in career development, compensation, and promotion.

Training and Development

VNET regards talent development as a key driver of corporate growth. Our sustainable talent strategy is fully integrated with corporate objectives, providing employees with comprehensive career development support to help them enhance their technological innovation capabilities and achieve self-fulfillment. In response to evolving industry demands, we are now launching specialized development programs targeting young talents in power and computing fields to cultivate outstanding professionals who will fuel business innovation and transformation.

The Group is deepening its efforts to cultivate cross-functional talent through the “Meet the Future, Linked Growth” initiative, encouraging employees to engage in cross-domain practices. Through diverse experiential learning, we foster continuous learning and innovation, guiding all staff to embrace an entrepreneurial mindset and achieve mutual growth between individuals and the organization. For open positions, we encourage internal referrals or self-nominations, enabling candidates to transition internally through competitive evaluation processes.

In 2025, the Group updated the Employee Training Management System and upgraded the systematic and multi-level employee training mechanism. It provides targeted training for employees at different career stages to meet the talent development needs of various business lines. The Group also offers external training opportunities and financial support for professional certification exams to all employees, effectively lowering learning costs and  fostering greater motivation for continuous learning.

VNET has developed the “VNET E-Learning” online platform, integrating high-quality educational resources to cultivate leadership, professional, and general capabilities. Personalized learning roadmaps are tailored for employees. Currently, a total of 947 premium courses have been released on the “VNET E-Learning” platform. These courses cover various categories such as multicultural education, digital tool application, and intelligent technology knowledge, helping employees broaden their horizons, improve efficiency, and keep up with technological trends to meet their diverse learning needs. For employees in career transition periods (such as those returning to the workplace), the platform provides appropriate course resources for them to quickly obtain the support and guidance necessary for the transition, master practical skills, and smoothly integrate into the workplace during career transitions period.

VNET has developed a comprehensive program to help all employees grow professionally. This program includes structured training in leadership, professional, and general capabilities. Senior and mid-level managers participate in benchmarking visits and management development programs. We run dedicated management trainee initiatives with customized empowerment plans and mentorship support for high-potential graduates and young talent. These initiatives inject fresh momentum into the Group’s talent pipeline and foster leadership growth across all levels.

Health and Safety

VNET is committed to safeguarding the occupational health and safety of its employees, suppliers, third-party partners and other stakeholders. We strictly comply with relevant laws, regulations, and standards in our operational locations. The executive management regularly reviews and oversees the implementation of occupational health and safety practices and the effectiveness of the management system to improve our occupational health and safety management capabilities.

In 2025, VNET issued and updated multiple policy documents related to safety and inspection management, including the Work Safety Management System for Projects in Construction and the Inspection System for Projects in Construction. To strengthen the foundation of operational safety management, we also launched the preliminary review implementation plan and scheme for work safety standardization, along with supporting documents such as reward-and-penalty records and work safety commitment letters, thereby further standardizing on-site operational protocols and key inspection requirements. Additionally, existing regulations such as the Regulations on Work Safety Management, Fire Safety Management System, and Personal Safety Incident Management System clearly define various requirements, including safety management responsibilities and risk assessment standards. We have established a risk mitigation action plan based on the risk priority of occupational health and safety. Furthermore, we have formulated and issued the Occupational Health and Safety Policy applicable to all employees as well as contractors, and actively encourage suppliers, business partners, and other stakeholders to adhere to these standards. Currently, multiple sites of our core business have been certified under the Occupational Health and Safety Management System (ISO 45001).

We implement a work safety accountability system, setting clear safety objectives and incorporating occupational health and safety performance into the compensation and bonus evaluations of relevant managers to reinforce their sense of responsibility.

The Group has established a safety hazard registry, a safety standardization manual and other tools to address high-risk and high-incidence safety hazards during project construction, providing visual and actionable safety implementation standards for each project. We also develop tailored safeguard measures and emergency response plans based on the characteristics of each project and have implemented safety and emergency response mechanisms, along with accident reporting procedures. In the event of safety control incidents, such as work-related accidents, we promptly initiate investigations, identify root causes, address the issues appropriately, and refine our systems to prevent recurrence.

During project operations, each site maintains a comprehensive, end-to-end, multi-dimensional health and safety management system. By optimizing management standards, conducting targeted training and emergency drills, and implementing closed-loop risk management, we continuously strengthen safety protocols, fortify operational safety defenses, and ensure the health and safety of our employees.

VNET’s occupational health and safety management measures for various stakeholders:

Employee:

• ◇ Gather employee suggestions on occupational health and safety through the Trade Union Committee and continuously improve management practices based on the feedback received.

• ◇ Regularly conduct health and safety themed lectures covering all employees, such as safety emergency drills, fire safety training, first aid training, to reduce the likelihood of accidents.

• ◇ Equip office areas with safety first-aid equipment such as automatic external defibrillators (AEDs), health huts, mental health counseling rooms, and first-aid kits to provide employees with professional physical and mental health service support.

Supplier /Contractor/ Construction Personnel:

• ◇ We sign Work Safety Agreements and Construction Safety Liability Agreements with contractors, and require subcontractors to follow VNET’s work safety management practice to ensure the safety of personnel, equipment, and operations.

• ◇ Operators must complete the skills and safety training upon entry, hold valid operation certificates and relevant qualifications, and sign safety commitment letters.

• ◇ Regularly conduct work safety education and training, as well as fire emergency drills for project construction personnel, including training on fire evacuation, first-aid, and personal protection skills.

• ◇ Establish a dedicated team to conduct third-party unannounced inspections, and regular and quarterly patrols of construction projects, identify quality defects and safety hazards with identified issues subject to rectification and re-inspection within a specified timeframe, and strengthen the supervision and control of the project initial safety responsibility objectives.

• ◇ Regularly publicize quality pre-control and safety pre-control plans on-site, conduct random safety education checks, and issue early warnings and corrective actions for potential risks.

Community:

• ◇ Reasonably plan the construction periods and implement sound insulation and noise reduction measures for high-noise equipment to avoid disturbing residents.

• ◇ Strictly comply with the requirements of environmental impact assessment, conduct patrols to clean up construction waste, and eliminate potential safety hazards.

• ◇ Implement closed-off fencing management at construction sites and set up clear warning signs and safety protection facilities.Establish a communication mechanism to promptly respond to resident demands.