Samsung workers to begin vote on pay deal

SEOUL: Some 89,000 unionised Samsung Electronics' workers in South Korea will begin voting on Friday on a pay deal that has been hailed as a win for the company as well as its memory chip workers.

Voting, which is being conducted electronically, ‌will begin ⁠at ⁠2:12 p.m. after a brief delay due to a server overload, ​the union said. The vote is due to run until 10:00 ​a.m. on May 27.

The union's leader has said he expects the agreement to be ratified.


Approval requires a simple majority ​to vote in favour and a ⁠majority of ‌all unionised members to take part. ​Otherwise negotiations ​must restart from scratch.

The 11th-hour government-mediated deal ⁠reached on Wednesday averted a threatened 18-day strike ​that risked inflicting significant pain on South ​Korea's economy and denting global chip supply.

It resulted in an 8.5% surge in Samsung's share price on Thursday to a record high. The stock briefly hit a fresh record on Friday before giving up some ground ‌to be last trading down 2.3%.

Under the deal, all Samsung chip workers will receive 50% ​of their ​annual salary as ⁠a regular bonus in cash, according to the union. On top of that, Samsung will set aside 10.5% of ​the chip division's operating profit for special bonuses which will take the form of stock.

Some of its memory chip workers are set to receive total bonuses of about $416,000 this year.