Samsung-Gericht weist einstweilige Verfügung der Gewerkschaft bei Abstimmung über Halbleiter-Bonus zurück

Court Rejects Injunction on Semiconductor Bonus Voting

On May 26, the Suwon District Court rejected an injunction application seeking to halt Samsung Electronics' main union from proceeding with compensation negotiations, according to foreign media reports. The court's decision allows wage and benefits negotiations between the union and Samsung management to continue legally. The Donghaeng Union, representing approximately 13,000 employees from Samsung Electronics' non-semiconductor divisions (including the Device eXperience business unit), had filed the injunction to stop a vote by semiconductor division employees on a proposed performance bonus increase.

Background: Bonus Structure Dispute

The Donghaeng Union, Samsung's third-largest, sought the injunction after being informed it had no voting rights in the semiconductor division union members' ballot. The dispute stems from a new performance bonus structure that heavily favors the semiconductor business amid surging profits from the memory chip market.

Preliminary Agreement Reached

On May 20, Samsung Electronics and its labor representatives reached a preliminary agreement on the performance bonus plan, averting a full strike originally scheduled for May 21. According to the "2026 Performance Bonus Preliminary Agreement" signed by both parties on May 20, the company will maintain the existing annual performance bonus (OPI) system while introducing a new semiconductor special performance bonus for the Device Solutions (DS) division's semiconductor business unit.

Bonus Structure Details

The company will allocate 10.5% of operating profit as the special performance bonus fund with no upper limit. Of this allocation, 40% goes to the DS division, with the remaining 60% distributed to sub-divisions. The uniform performance bonus distributed to administrative departments equals 70% of the storage chip business sub-division level.

Under the new structure, if Samsung Electronics achieves 300 million billion won in annual operating profit, employees in the storage chip business unit could receive up to 5.5 billion won in performance bonuses. Combined with the existing annual bonus system (OPI), employees could receive up to 6 billion won in total bonuses, bringing pre-tax annual salary to approximately 7 billion won (approximately 31.3 million Chinese yuan). This salary level is seven times the average annual salary of employees at major Korean enterprises.

Voting Timeline and Process

The preliminary agreement began voting on the evening of May 20, with electronic voting scheduled to continue until 10 a.m. on May 27. Approximately 89,000 union members are expected to participate. The agreement becomes effective if more than half of all members participate in the vote and a majority supports it; otherwise, labor-management negotiations must resume.

Auswirkungen auf den Arbeitsmarkt

Die bonusorientierte Struktur mit Schwerpunkt auf Halbleitern hat Unzufriedenheit in nicht-halbleiterbezogenen Unternehmensbereichen hervorgerufen. Berichten zufolge haben Samsung Electronics und SK Hynix ein Modell eingeführt, das einen Prozentsatz des operativen Gewinns als leistungsabhängige Boni zuweist, wodurch sich möglicherweise die Gehaltsunterschiede zwischen Unternehmen weiter vergrößern. Die meisten Branchen außerhalb der Bereiche Halbleiter, Schiffbau, Verteidigung und Anlagen zur Stromerzeugung haben Schwierigkeiten, solche Bonusverteilungsmodelle umzusetzen.

Li Bing-hun, emeritierter Professor für Soziologie an der Chung-Ang University, wies darauf hin, dass nach den Arbeitsverhandlungen bei Samsung Electronics die branchenübergreifenden Forderungen nach zusätzlichen leistungsabhängigen Boni seitens des Managements zugenommen haben, was die Polarisierung am Arbeitsmarkt möglicherweise verschärfen könnte.