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| Samsung Display Asan Campus in South Chungcheong Province / Courtesy of Samsung Display |
By Lee Kyung-min
Samsung Display, the display manufacturing affiliate of Samsung Group, is facing a growing risk of a labor strike, the latest development in a months-long deadlock in wage negotiations between management and unionized workers, according to the firm and market watchers, Friday.
The unionized workers said they plan to file a request for dispute resolution with the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC), saying the 10th round of negotiations rendered no result. They are reportedly considering going on strike. The workers seeking NLRC involvement took similar action two years earlier.
The commission-mediated settlement is a system whereby a plan is delivered to both management and labor on labor conditions including wages, working hours and employee benefits.
Up to 20 days of mediation presided over by a NLRC committee can lead to a mutually agreeable resolution. But workers can initiate a strike, if the plan is refused by either the management or the labor side.
The union said the management is refusing to recognize the workers' group as a negotiating partner. Of the 26 demands put forth by the unionized workers, the management accepted only two.
The management said a wage increase of 2 percent is as high as it can offer, but the unionized workers rejected it. The 2 percent is an upward revision from an earlier increase in the mid-1 percent range.
The workers have not come up with a set figure to counter the offer. But they say management's stance is an insult to them, since any figure less than 2 percent is far low compared to the annual average increase of 3.9 percent in their wages over the past four years.
The union members say the ceiling for payable hours worked for labor-related activities should be raised to 11,000 hours per every 1,800 workers. But management says the hours should be capped at 7,000.
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