May 29 (Yicai Global) -- Editor Bian Chun The wage agreement reached between Samsung Electronics' two largest unions (representing more than 65,000 members) and the memory chip giant has been approved, but it will still face legal challenges.
On Friday, a minority union representing Samsung's consumer electronics employees, the third-largest union called the same-industry union, said it would apply to a South Korean court for an injunction to suspend the implementation of the wage agreement. The agreement is seen as heavily favoring chip division employees.
After months of negotiations, Samsung and its top two unions reached a tentative wage agreement at the last minute last week, which was voted through by union members this week, thereby averting a large-scale strike originally planned to last 18 days that could have disrupted global semiconductor supply and the South Korean economy.
Under the wage agreement, Samsung's chip division employees will receive huge bonuses, with memory chip employees expected to receive performance bonuses of 600 million won (about 2.7 million yuan), as AI is driving explosive growth in the company's semiconductor business.
In contrast, non-chip division employees will only receive company stock worth about 6 million won. The huge disparity in wages has sparked significant internal conflict at Samsung.
Earlier this week, the same-industry union had applied to a South Korean court for an injunction to block the vote on performance bonus increases that chip division employees were then conducting. However, the application was quickly rejected by the court.
Samsung's same-industry union has about 13,000 members, mainly from the smartphone, TV, and home appliance divisions. The union's membership has rapidly increased from around 2,600 to its current size.
After the failure of the first legal action, the same-industry union will continue to challenge the wage agreement, which it considers unfair, seeking to block its implementation.
A lawyer for the union said at a hearing on Friday that since the vote had passed, the union would ask the court to suspend the implementation of the wage agreement.
The union's legal counsel said they would submit revised injunction documents next week and expect the court to rule within a month.
