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.
勞動市場的影響
以半導體為導向的獎金制度引發非半導體部門的不滿。據報導，Samsung Electronics 與 SK Hynix 已導入一種模式，將營業利潤的一定比例用作績效獎金，可能進一步拉大企業之間的薪資差距。半導體、造船、國防以及電力設備等領域以外的多數產業，難以落實這種獎金分配模式。
中央大學社會學名譽教授李炳勳指出，隨著 Samsung Electronics 的勞資談判後，各產業對管理層額外發放績效獎金的呼聲愈發強烈，可能加劇勞動市場的兩極化。
