Legal challenge emerges as nonchip workers protest bonus-heavy tentative deal Leaders of Samsung Electronics’ Donghaeng labor union, mainly composed of employees from the company’s Device eXperience division, speak to reporters in front of the Suwon District Court in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, on Tuesday before filing for an injunction to suspend a vote on the tentative wage agreement between management and labor. (Yonhap) The vote on Samsung Electronics’ tentative 2026 wage agreement faces a last-minute legal challenge after a union representing employees outside the company’s chip business asked a court to halt the ballot. claiming its members were unfairly excluded.The Samsung Electronics Donghaeng Labor Union said Tuesday it had filed for an injunction with the Suwon District Court to suspend the ongoing vote on the tentative agreement reached between the company and the bargaining representative union.Around 10 a.m. Tuesday, 51,835 of 57,305 eligible members of the Samsung Electronics Labor Union, the company’s largest union and a member of the joint bargaining group, had cast ballots, putting turnout at 90.45 percent. The result is expected to be announced at 10 a.m. Wednesday.The largest union accounts for 57,305 of 65,492 eligible voters in the ballot. The National Samsung Electronics Union, the No. 2 union, accounts for about 12.5 percent.At issue is whether Donghaeng members should have been allowed to vote. Donghaeng claims the largest union excluded it from the ballot because it feared opposition from employees in Samsung’s nonchip businesses, including the Device eXperience division (DX), which oversees smartphones, TVs and home appliances.Before voting began, Choi Seung-ho, head of the largest union, emailed Donghaeng on May 20 and 21, asking it to hold its own vote on the wage agreement and submit a membership list by the 2 p.m. May 21 cutoff.“The Samsung Electronics Labor Union will respect the voting rights of all unions,” Choi wrote.Donghaeng’s membership then jumped from around 2,600 to about 13,000 in just one day, a surge the union says reflected growing discontent among DX employees over the tentative deal.But on the morning of the vote, Choi said the agreement had already been signed on May 20, after Donghaeng had lost its status in the joint bargaining group. He said voting rights would therefore be limited to members of the unions that remained in the group, according to the lists submitted by the deadline.Donghaeng had initially participated in negotiations as a member of the joint bargaining group but later withdrew, saying DX employees’ views were not being properly reflected.Park Jae-yong, head of Donghaeng, accused the representative union of denying minority unions equal treatment and voting rights.“This rushed agreement shows the company and the representative union believe any decision by the bargaining representative should simply be accepted, even when it is flawed,” Park said. “We are not after rewards tied to performance. All we are asking for is fair treatment within the same company.”Donghaeng said in a Sunday notice that it had appointed law firm Daejeong to pursue further legal action, including a request to suspend the vote’s effect, a lawsuit to nullify the vote and a complaint over an alleged breach of the duty of fair representation.The tentative agreement centers on a new special management performance bonus for Samsung’s chip division and a change in the funding formula for the company’s overall performance incentive, which can pay up to 50 percent of an employee’s annual salary. Under the deal, the OPI pool would be based on 10 percent of operating profit, replacing the current economic value added formula.Industry watchers say the deal is likely to pass unless there is an unexpected turn, largely because an estimated 80 to 90 percent of the Samsung Electronics Labor Union’s voting members are employees in Device Solutions, the division that oversees Samsung’s chip business.Some DS employees, particularly those in the System LSI and foundry businesses, have expressed frustration over the size of bonuses under the tentative deal. Still, fatigue from the prolonged wage talks appears to have left many employees favoring an early settlement.The dispute also reflects frustration among DX employees over a widening compensation gap with Samsung’s chip business.The tentative agreement could leave employees in the DS division with performance-based compensation ranging from about 210 million won to 600 million won ($139,100-$398,200) before tax, assuming an annual salary of 100 million won. DX employees, by contrast, are expected to receive about 6 million won worth of company shares.