SEOUL — Samsung Electronics’ largest labor union on Monday renewed its demand for the company to allocate 15% of operating profit to employee performance-based bonuses and remove the cap on payouts, warning that mediation talks could break down without progress.
Choi Seung-ho, head of the union, reiterated the demand ahead of follow-up mediation talks meant to avert an 18-day strike planned to begin May 21, Yonhap News Agency reported.
“We have continued to call for performance-based bonuses equivalent to 15 percent of operating profit, along with the removal of the payout cap and the institutionalisation of the system,” Choi told reporters before the meeting at the National Labor Relations Commission in Sejong.
“If the company does not present a position on institutionalising the scheme, we believe mediation efforts could break down as early as today,” he said.
The talks began Monday and are scheduled to continue through Tuesday.
Samsung Electronics last month reported first-quarter operating profit of 57.23 trillion won, up sharply from 6.68 trillion won a year earlier, helped by strong demand for high-end memory chips used in artificial intelligence applications.
Management and the union have been in wage negotiations since December. Talks broke down in March after the two sides failed to narrow their differences over performance-based bonuses.
The labor dispute at Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest memory chip maker and South Korea’s most valuable company, has raised concerns that a walkout could disrupt production, affect the semiconductor supply chain and weigh on the broader economy. (Source: IANS)
