AFP, SEOUL
Samsung Electronics Co’s chip employees are expected to receive average bonuses worth 509 million won (US$336,890) this year, a company official said yesterday, under a tentative deal between management and labor unions to avert a strike.The tech giant and its union reached the provisional agreement on late on Wednesday following last-minute government-mediated talks, avoiding a planned 18-day strike that was set to begin yesterday.The dispute unfolded against the backdrop of a global artificial intelligence (AI) boom that has turbocharged Samsung Electronics’ chip business while lifting South Korea’s economic growth and stock market.
A Samsung Electronics Co flag flutters outside the company’s Seocho building in Seoul on Wednesday.
The tentative deal introduces a new bonus pool for employees in the semiconductor division, equivalent to 10.5 percent of the division’s operating profit, to be paid in stock.Combined with an additional 1.5 percent in cash, the deal would allow workers to share up to 12 percent of operating profit as bonuses.
Samsung Electronics’ semiconductor employees are expected to receive about 509 million won under the new deal, a company official said.The figure is a rough calculation based on the estimated 331 trillion won in operating profit — in line with market consensus reported by Yonhap News Agency — as well as a 12 percent bonus pool and about 78,000 chip employees.The bonus scheme would last 10 years and is conditional on the chip division posting annual operating profit of more than 200 trillion won between this year and 2028, and more than 100 trillion won annually through 2035.While workers are expected to benefit from the deal, some shareholders voiced opposition.A group of Samsung Electronics shareholders vowed yesterday to pursue legal action against the tentative agreement.The Korea Shareholder Action Headquarters staged a rally near the residence of Samsung Electronics chairman Jay Y. Lee, saying that operating profit-linked bonuses had not been approved through a shareholder resolution and therefore lacked legal validity under commercial law.The group said that it would “use all legal means available” to block any disbursement of company funds based on the agreement if it is finalized without following the required procedures.Samsung Electronics’ memory chips are used in products ranging from consumer electronics to computer processors, while its next-generation high-bandwidth memory chips are key components for scaling up AI data centers.The company last month said that its first-quarter operating profit jumped about 750 percent from a year earlier, while its market capitalization topped US$1 trillion for the first time this month.The prospect of a strike had raised concerns over the potential effect on South Korea’s economy, with semiconductors accounting for about 35 percent of the country’s exports.
