Unionized

Unionized workers of Kakao Corp., South Korea’s messenger app operator, took a day off en masse on Monday in a sign of protest amid a continued gridlock in wage negotiations.

In their second collective action, unionized members staged what they called a “Log-out Day” by taking simultaneous annual leave.

Some 2,100 workers from five units of Kakao, including its headquarters, Kakao Pay and Kakao Enterprise, have participated, the labor union claimed.

The company, however, said it estimates only 800 employees from Kakao’s headquarters took part in the latest industrial action.

Wage talks between Kakao’s labor union and management have been at a standstill since May, after the two sides failed to narrow differences in performance-based incentives.

The union is reportedly demanding the company pay around 13 to 14 percent of operating profit as bonuses, while the management has rejected such demands, claiming they put too much burden on the company.

On June 10, workers staged their first-ever strike. Some 1,500 union members walked out from their jobs for four hours and rallied near the company’s headquarters in Pangyo, south of Seoul.

Despite concerns from industry watchers, no disruptions were reported on Monday, including in the company’s key messenger service, KakaoTalk.

Kakao’s management had previously said it plans to continue negotiations with the union, while remaining on standby to ensure stable service operations.

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Samsung Electronics Co.’s unionized workers voted to approve a wage agreement that includes a substantial bonus package for chip workers, the union said Wednesday, easing concerns over potential disruptions to the global supply chain.

In the six-day vote, 73.7 percent of the 62,616 members of the tech giant’s two largest unions approved the tentative deal. The agreement was finalized after a majority of eligible voters took part in the vote and a majority voted in favor of the proposal.

Later in the day, the two sides signed the wage agreement, with management pledging to strengthen the company’s global competitiveness.

“Starting with the conclusion of this wage agreement, labor and management will work together as one to strengthen our global competitiveness,” Yeo Myeong-gu, head of the company’s Device Solutions division’s People Team, said in a press release.

The labor union and management reached the agreement just an hour before an 18-day strike was set to begin at the world’s top memory chipmaker last Thursday.

Labor and management had been deadlocked since late last year over performance-based bonuses tied to earnings from the company’s artificial intelligence (AI)-related semiconductor business amid the ongoing global memory chip boom.

Under the deal, Samsung will allocate a special semiconductor performance bonus equivalent to 10.5 percent of business performance earnings, without a cap.

The special bonuses will be paid in company stock over at least 10 years, based on targets for the chip division to achieve more than 200 trillion won (US$132 billion) in annual operating profit from 2026 to 2028 and 100 trillion won from 2029 to 2035.

Of the total bonus pool, 40 percent will be allocated to the division as a whole, while 60 percent will be distributed to individual business units.

Based on forecasts that Samsung’s operating profit could reach 300 trillion won this year, the agreement could translate into bonus payouts of up to 600 million won for each of the 28,000 employees in the company’s profitable chip division.

Following the signing, the company announced it will create a 5 trillion-won fund over the next five years to invest in future talent development and build an ecosystem supporting its suppliers and underprivileged groups.

“Over the next five years, we will raise a total of 5 trillion won to invest in win-win cooperation and building a healthy ecosystem, as well as nurturing future talent,” according to the statement attributed by company executives.

The move is widely seen as an effort to counter criticism that the company has been distributing massive profits from the semiconductor supercycle as excessive employee bonuses.

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