Samsung union suspends strike after reaching tentative deal on bonuses - Engadget

Samsung’s largest labor union in South Korea suspended a strike scheduled to begin May 21 after reaching a tentative agreement with the company. Nearly 48,000 workers were expected to walk out for 18 days, with most belonging to the memory division, Samsung’s biggest revenue source. Unionized workers will vote on the tentative agreement from May 22 to May 27, and a final deal will be set only after voting. The union’s walkout plan followed failed negotiations over bonuses, including removing a cap and increasing the share of annual operating profit allocated to a bonus pool. Samsung agreed to abolish the cap and allocate 10.5% of annual operating profit, with 40% of the bonus pool going to memory chip workers.

"Samsung's largest labor union in South Korea has suspended the strike that was set to begin on May 21 after reaching a tentative deal with the company. Nearly 48,000 workers would have walked out for the strike, which was scheduled to last for 18 days. And since most of those workers belong to Samsung's memory division, its biggest moneymaker, it could have had a huge financial impact on the company and on South Korea as a whole."

"Union leader Choi Seung-ho has announced that the unionized workers will vote on the tentative agreement from May 22 to 27. A final agreement will only be reached after voting is done. "With a humble attitude, we will build a more mature and constructive labour-management relationship to ensure that such an incident never happens again," Samsung said in a statement."

"If you'll recall, the workers decided to stage a walkout out after negotiations with Samsung fell through on the issue of bonuses. They wanted the company to remove the cap on their bonuses, which was equivalent to 50 percent of their annual salaries, like rival SK Hynix did for its employees. They were also pushing for Samsung to allocate 15 percent of its annual operating profit to the bonus pool."

"According to , Samsung has agreed to abolish the cap and to set aside 10.5 percent of its annual operating profits for its employees. Yonhap News has reported that 40 percent of the bonus pool will go to memory chip division workers, while the rest of Samsung's units will divide 60 percent among themselves. The agreed-upon percentage is lower than the union's ask of 15 percent, but it's higher than the 10 percent of profit SK Hynix is paying out to"

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