Samsung Electronics DX Union to Pursue 'Ordinary Wage Lawsuit'

Holiday Homecoming Allowance Included in Ordinary Wages
Samsung Electro-Mechanics and Others Also Move to Join

Some labor unions within Samsung Group are reportedly preparing wage litigation against the company.

Seoul Samsung Electronics Seocho Building. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

According to business and labor circles on the 23rd, the Samsung Electronics DX (Device Experience) union has been recruiting 6,100 members for a lawsuit group since the 19th. The union plans to form the lawsuit group by the end of this month and file the lawsuit in early next month. The union is known to plan to include holiday travel allowances in the ordinary wages and demand the unpaid amounts for the past 2 years and 4 months. The lawsuit will also claim that the company’s monthly personal pension support funds should be recognized as ordinary wages. The Samsung Electro-Mechanics union is also gathering members aiming to file a lawsuit in April. The Samsung Display and Samsung Biologics unions are also reportedly considering litigation.

The unions believe they have a good chance of winning, as there have been many cases where corporate unions won in recent ordinary wage lawsuits. In November last year, the Seoul Central District Court ruled partially in favor of 129 members of the Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance union in an ordinary wage lawsuit. The union argued that fixed working hour allowances, meal subsidies, transportation expenses, personal pension support funds, loss adjuster practical allowances, and holiday travel allowances for Lunar New Year and Chuseok (traditional holidays) should be included in ordinary wages under the Labor Standards Act, and requested recalculation of night and holiday work allowances based on this. The court recognized only meal subsidies, personal pension support funds, loss adjuster practical allowances, and holiday travel allowances for Lunar New Year and Chuseok as ordinary wages.

The ‘Super-Enterprise Union,’ officially launched on the 19th, is known to be supporting the lawsuit. The ‘Super-Enterprise Union’ was formed by the unions of Samsung Electronics and four affiliates (Samsung Electronics DX, Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance, Samsung Display, Samsung Biologics) joining forces. Currently, it has 15,800 members, but the scale will increase to about 17,000 when the Samsung Electro-Mechanics union joins in May. This is comparable to the nationwide Samsung Electronics union, which has the largest number of members (17,000) among the affiliates. Hong Gwang-heum, chairman of the Super-Enterprise Union, said, “Our ultimate goal is to return to the old Samsung Electronics, which was known for the best treatment in the industry,” adding, “We hope to return to the time when unions were unnecessary and be able to dissolve the union ourselves.”

Besides the unions’ ordinary wage lawsuits, Samsung Group is expected to face intensified labor-management conflicts from the end of this month to early next month, when wage negotiations reach their peak. Some express concerns that the group may be hampered by ‘union risks’ at a critical time when it must engage in fierce global competition.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.