A labor organization representing workers in Samsung Electronics’ consumer product divisions filed a court petition on Tuesday seeking to stop a vote on a compensation package that disproportionately benefits employees in the company’s semiconductor operations.
The compensation agreement, brokered by government mediators last week, brought an end to an 18-day work stoppage involving 48,000 employees. The package offers substantial bonus payments to staff in Samsung’s memory semiconductor unit, which has experienced significant profit growth due to artificial intelligence demand.
Union members started casting ballots on Friday, with the voting period scheduled to end Wednesday morning.
The Samsung Electronics Co Union (SECU), representing approximately 13,000 workers primarily from smartphone, television and household appliance departments, issued a statement explaining their legal challenge came after being excluded from participation in the vote.
Internal disputes led the SECU to withdraw from the bargaining process before negotiators finalized the agreement.
The Samsung Electronics Labor Union (SELU) spearheaded the talks and announced Tuesday that over 90% of its 57,290 eligible members had submitted votes, though the results remain undisclosed.
The agreement requires both a simple majority of qualified union members to support the deal and majority participation in the voting process. Failure to meet these thresholds would force negotiators to begin discussions anew.
Another labor group, the National Samsung Electronics Union (NSEU), plans to skip the vote entirely due to dissatisfaction with the agreement terms, according to Yonhap news reports.
The NSEU represents both semiconductor and non-semiconductor employees and claims roughly 20,000 members based on its website information.
Samsung contributes approximately 25% of the nation’s export revenue, making the resolution of this labor dispute significant for South Korea’s economy. However, the controversy has highlighted sharp disagreements about distributing profits from the artificial intelligence industry surge.
Certain memory chip employees stand to collect total bonus payments reaching approximately $416,000 during the current year.
Staff members in Samsung’s foundry and logic chip design departments will earn considerably smaller but still noteworthy bonuses, while employees in divisions such as smartphones and home appliances will receive even more modest payments.
A small coalition of individual investors has also threatened legal action if union members approve the deal, claiming portions of the agreement violate regulations without shareholder consent.
Samsung’s stock price climbed 2.7% during morning trading sessions. Share values have increased nearly 9% since the agreement announcement last week, though this performance trails the 19% jump experienced by competitor SK Hynix.
