A South Korean court cleared the path for Samsung Electronics to approve a bonus deal that will pay memory chip workers roughly $400,000 each, while non-chip employees receive approximately $4,000.
Legal challenge dismissed
The Suwon District Court on Tuesday rejected an injunction filed by five employees from Samsung’s Device eXperience (DX) division, which includes smartphones and home appliances. The plaintiffs argued the DX division was unfairly excluded from voting on the deal, which was negotiated by the larger Samsung Electronics Labor Union (SELU). Over 90% of eligible SELU members had already cast ballots by Tuesday morning, and the vote is widely expected to pass when it closes Wednesday, given that 80% to 90% of the union’s 57,290 members work in the semiconductor division.
Bonus structure and allocation
The government-mediated agreement, reached last week to avert an 18-day general strike by 48,000 workers, allocates 10.5% of Samsung’s semiconductor division operating profit as stock-based bonuses, plus an additional 1.5% in cash. The program runs for 10 years, contingent on the division hitting aggressive annual operating profit targets: 200 trillion won ($132 billion) from 2026 to 2028 and 100 trillion won from 2029 to 2035. Based on Bloomberg projections of Samsung’s 2026 operating profit at approximately 330 trillion won ($218 billion), the total bonus pool for the company’s 78,000 semiconductor employees would reach roughly 40 trillion won ($26.6 billion). Individual payouts vary sharply by unit: memory division workers stand to receive around 600 million won ($400,000), while those in Samsung’s struggling foundry and logic chip design operations would get substantially less. DX division employees would receive approximately 6 million won ($4,000) under the existing bonus structure, which the new deal does not change.
Broader opposition and operational impact
Opposition extends beyond the SELU. The National Samsung Electronics Union (NSEU), with roughly 20,000 members across chip and non-chip divisions, is voting against the deal, and some foundry workers within the chip division are also frustrated with the terms. A group of individual shareholders has separately threatened to sue, arguing the profit-linked bonus scheme amounts to a distribution of company funds requiring a shareholder vote under South Korean commercial law. The Korea Shareholder Action Headquarters staged a rally near Samsung Chairman Lee Jae-yong’s residence, warning it would use all available legal avenues to block disbursement. The internal rift has already had operational consequences: resentment over the bonus disparity has spread to Samsung’s chip packaging divisions, with intentional production slowdowns disrupting HBM delivery schedules. CEO Jun Young-hyun urged employees in an internal memo to move past the conflict.
Forward-looking significance
This deal, while averting a strike, exposes deep internal fractures at Samsung that could undermine its competitive position in memory and foundry markets. The 100-fold payout disparity between chip and non-chip workers risks long-term morale erosion and operational disruptions, particularly in high-stakes areas like HBM production. Shareholder legal challenges add another layer of uncertainty. Samsung’s leadership must now navigate both internal cohesion and external legal risks to sustain its semiconductor momentum.
