SEOUL, May 22 (AJP) - Unionized members of Samsung Electronics on Friday begin vote on whether to accept a tentative wage settlement agreed last week that would create a profit-linked special bonus system and remove the risk of a disruptive strike.
The six-day electronic voting window opened at 2 p.m. Friday and will run through 10 a.m. Wednesday. The electorate consists of the 70,850 union members registered as of 2 p.m. on Thursday — a figure that has decreased significantly from a peak of around 77,000 amid recent internal discord. The landmark agreement will be finalized and become legally binding if a majority of eligible members participate and more than half vote in favor. Otherwise, both sides must return to the negotiating table.
The tentative 2026 wage agreement, reached Wednesday after marathon government-mediated negotiations, introduces a “Special Management Bonus” funded by 10.5 percent of the semiconductor division’s business performance. It also includes a new housing loan program offering up to 500 million won ($365,000) and an average wage increase of 6.2 percent, consisting of a 4.1 percent base-pay hike and a 2.1 percent performance-based increase.
Local securities firms project Samsung Electronics to post operating profit of around 300 trillion won this year amid the AI-driven semiconductor boom. Based on those forecasts, approximately 31.5 trillion won would be allocated for the special management bonus pool. Employees in the memory division — the company’s main earnings engine — are estimated to receive up to 600 million won in combined bonuses this year, including the existing Overall Performance Incentive (OPI).
Under the agreement, the special management bonus will be paid entirely in treasury shares after taxes, effectively turning the payout into a large-scale stock compensation scheme.
Employees in non-memory businesses such as System LSI and Foundry, which are expected to remain loss-making this year, are also projected to receive at least 160 million won in special bonuses under a rule allocating 40 percent of the semiconductor division’s common performance pool across all DS units.
“This tentative agreement is the result of the utmost efforts by the Enterprise Union and the joint struggle committee,” said Choi Seung-ho, head of the Samsung Electronics branch of the Enterprise Union, in a message to members Thursday. “We will consider the outcome of this vote as the report card our members give to the union.”
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