Min Kyung-kwon (right), head of the Korea Shareholder Action Headquarters, speaks at a press conference near Samsung Electronics Chair Lee Jae-yong’s residence in Seoul on Thursday. (Yonhap) Samsung Electronics’ tentative wage agreement with its labor unions came under fresh legal scrutiny Thursday after a shareholders group threatened legal action over a new bonus scheme tied to operating profit.The Korea Shareholder Action Headquarters staged a rally near the residence of Samsung Electronics Chair Lee Jae-yong, arguing that parts of the labor-management agreement signed a day earlier could violate Korea’s Commercial Act.“The agreement to accumulate and distribute 12 percent of pretax operating profit is illegal,” the group said in a statement. “Without approval through a shareholders’ meeting resolution, it is legally invalid.”Samsung Electronics and its unions signed the tentative wage agreement Wednesday at the Gyeonggi Regional Employment and Labor Office in Suwon, temporarily easing concerns over a full-scale strike. The agreement still requires approval from union members.At the center of the dispute is a revised bonus formula combining 1.5 percent of operating profit from Samsung’s existing overall performance incentive program and 10.5 percent from a newly created special management performance bonus. Together, the structure would create a bonus pool equivalent to roughly 12 percent of operating profit.The shareholder group argued that the formula was problematic because it is based on pretax operating profit — before taxes, investment allocations and shareholder-approved profit distributions are determined.The group also criticized several other provisions in the agreement, including the removal of the existing cap on performance bonuses, payment of bonuses entirely in Samsung Electronics shares after taxes, a one-year delay in applying penalties to loss-making business divisions and a joint labor-management process for setting business performance criteria.While acknowledging that stock-based bonus payments could improve procedural transparency, the group said the arrangement failed to address what it described as the core legal issue of using pretax operating profit as the basis for compensation.The organization warned that Samsung Electronics’ board could face legal liability if it approves or implements the agreement, arguing the deal could amount to using funds that should otherwise be available for dividends or future investment.It also raised the possibility that directors could be accused of breaching their fiduciary duties, including their duty of loyalty and duty of care.The group said it planned to file a lawsuit seeking to invalidate any board resolution approving or executing the agreement and pursue an injunction to block implementation of the bonus scheme.It also warned that if union members rejected the tentative agreement and stage a strike to demand a new operating profit-linked compensation system, the group may seek damages against union leaders and participating members.“Starting today, the Korea Shareholder Action Headquarters and Samsung Electronics shareholders will immediately begin mobilizing shareholders nationwide,” the group said.