Input 2021.03.22 14:01
LG Electronics 9% increase… A precedent for unprecedented compensation in the IT industry
Union “It is the best treatment, but there are many factors for the optical illusion effect”
According to the National Samsung Electronics Labor Union on the 22nd, the union will submit a request for wage bargaining to the management by this Friday. “For the first time, I’m going to ask the management for wage bargaining,” said Jin Yun-sik, chairman of the National Samsung Electronics Union. “If possible, I will deliver the request within this week.”
The nationwide Samsung Electronics union was launched in November 2019. Which has adhered to the principle of’no union management’ for about 50 years. Samsung Electronics (005930)A union affiliated with a higher level organization called the Federation of Korean Trade Unions (Korea Federation of Trade Unions) was established. Although there was a union within Samsung Electronics in the past, the number of subscribers was only a small number, so it was virtually ineffective.
Samsung Electronics has been negotiating wages through the labor-management council, an autonomous labor-management organization. The labor-management council has the right to collective bargaining, but since it is not a union, it concluded negotiations between the end of February and the beginning of March every year.
However, as some unions within Samsung Electronics, a multiple union system last year, applied for individual wage bargaining and the management accepted it, a subtle nervous war is taking place inside. The difference between the labor-management council and the union’s wage increase rate is one of the representative examples. It is reported that this year’s labor-management council insisted on a wage increase rate in the lower 6% range. Earlier in February of this year, eight unions of Samsung Group affiliates under the Korean Federation of Trade Unions, including the nationwide Samsung Electronics union, requested joint bargaining with the group and ordered a wage increase of 6.8% this year. The wage increase rate of Samsung Electronics employees last year was 2.5%.
Chairman Yunsik Jin said, “The 6.8% that was suggested at the beginning of the year is the minimum increase rate, and we will be able to match the wage level with other companies in consideration of the recent wage increase rates of competitors and the IT industry.” That is, it will be presented higher than the existing 6.8%. Earlier, LG Electronics raised employees’ wages by an average of 9% this year. Last year, the average salary of Kakao employees was 180 million won, a 35% increase from the previous year, while NCsoft’s average salary increased 22.1% to 1105.4 billion won. During the same period, Naver rose 21.2% to KRW 12.47 million.
Employees of Samsung Electronics are also showing willingness to obtain the highest possible increase rate as they suffered from measles once due to incentive issues at the beginning of the year. At the time of the launch of the nationwide Samsung Electronics union, the number of members was only 400, but it is reported that the number is now close to 3,000. The news is that the union has led the wage bargaining of other companies, and it is a form that empowers the union. There is also an opinion that the wage increase rate should be 20~30% on the union website.
An employee of Samsung Electronics said, “The executives said that they were treated as’the best in the industry’, but in reality it was not the best treatment.” There are many,” he insisted.