(Seoul = News 1) Reporter Jang Yong-seok = Samsung Electronics, which made huge profits from the booming artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductor industry, is embroiled in internal conflicts over the distribution of incentives, Reuters reported on the 15th.
In an article from Seoul, Reuters reported that Samsung Electronics offered incentives to employees of memory semiconductors higher than its competitor SK Hynix, while the union announced a massive strike as it offered much lower incentives to employees in logic semiconductors such as Foundry and System LSI.
According to the transcript of Samsung Electronics' internal wage negotiations obtained by Reuters, Samsung Electronics offered 27,000 memory employees at least six times higher incentives than its logic semiconductor division employees. In March, it offered 607% of annual salary to memory semiconductor employees, while the incentives offered to logic semiconductor-related employees such as foundry and system LSI were 50-100% of annual salary. Although employees in the logic division are involved in the production of AI chips for Tesla and Nvidia, the company said that differential performance pay is inevitable, citing that the division has been losing trillions of won in recent years.
However, the labor union is protesting that such a wage gap could lead to the departure of foundry and system LSI personnel. Samsung has been targeting "one-stop" semiconductor companies that encompass not only memory but also design and foundation, and if AI boom performance is concentrated in the memory sector, logic semiconductor competitiveness could weaken.
In particular, as SK Hynix abolished the upper limit of incentives last year, complaints in Samsung grew bigger. Reuters reported that some employees are already moving to competitors such as memory and SK Hynix, and many employees in the logic sector are considering changing jobs.
Currently, the labor union of Samsung Electronics is demanding that the upper limit of the annual salary of 50 percent be abolished and 15 percent of its annual operating profit be allocated to the fund. On the other hand, the company is in a position to pay the bonus according to the performance and contribution of its business unit.
The union announced that it would go on strike for 18 days from the 21st if the negotiations were not concluded. The union expects more than 45,000 people to participate in the strike. If the strike becomes a reality, it is expected to be the largest in Samsung Group's history.
JPMorgan estimated that the strike could affect Samsung Electronics' operating profit by 21 trillion won to 31 trillion won, and sales by 4.5 trillion won. Samsung also expressed concern that if the strike materializes, it could cause a "complete loss of trust" due to the failure of customer delivery.
ys4174@news1.kr
It’s a difficult issue to put into words, but a performance bonus is something you receive based on performance, so I don’t think the recipients are really in a position to complain about the criteria.
Unless the discussion is brought back to basic salary, public opinion is unlikely to be favorable.