A Samsung Biologics plant is seen in Yeonsu District, Incheon, on May 1, on the first day of the first general strike by the company's union. [YONHAP]
Samsung Biologics and its union agreed to continue talks after a meeting last Friday failed to produce an agreement, with escalating legal disputes and starkly different positions on wages and collective bargaining signaling a prolonged standoff.
Both sides said on Sunday that they accepted a recommendation from the Ministry of Employment and Labor to keep negotiations going behind closed doors.
"Although no agreement was reached at the tripartite meeting, we have decided to continue labor-management dialogue," Samsung Biologics said. "We have agreed not to disclose the contents of negotiations until a tentative agreement is reached."
The union, too, decided to prioritize the dialogue.
"We had planned to consider a second strike if wage talks showed no progress on Friday, but decided to continue dialogue first," the union said. "We took into account that the Ministry of Labor stepped in to mediate and that Samsung Electronics' labor and management have entered a post-mediation adjustment procedure."
The union staged a full strike from May 1 to Tuesday before returning to work on Wednesday, and has since been waging an indefinite work-to-rule protest, refusing to work overtime and on holidays.
During the strike, Samsung Biologics filed a criminal complaint against one union member for entering another department's manufacturing zone on charges of obstruction of business. It has since filed additional complaints against union chairman Park Jae-sung and two other union executives, as well as three floor-level union members, on the grounds that they continued striking in processes where courts had issued injunctions against industrial collective action.
The union had previously filed complaints against some in management over unfair labor practices — specifically unlawful control and interference — and plans to submit additional written opinions naming around 30 in management.
The entrance to the Samsung Biologics facility in Songdo, Incheon, on May 4. [KIM KYOUNG-ROK]
Samsung Biologics estimates losses of roughly 150 to 300 billion won ($102 million to $204 million) from both the partial strike held from April 28 to 30 and the five-day full walkout that followed.
The union is demanding a 14.3 percent wage increase, an over-performance incentive equal to 20 percent of operating profit and the abolishment of the performance bonus ceiling.
It has also demanded that the company notify the union of plans to appoint, dismiss or reassign executives; that a labor-management council has voting rights on decisions related to profit sharing, hiring and staffing; and that a labor-management employment stability committee has the authority to review and vote on mergers and acquisitions.
The company has countered with a 6.2 percent wage increase, an encouragement bonus equivalent to 200 percent of base salary and an incentive of either 10 percent of operating profit or 20 percent of economic value added. It has rejected the union's demands for prior consent rights over hiring, personnel decisions and mergers and acquisitions, saying such demands encroach on management's exclusive prerogatives.
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
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