Samsung Electronics workers have approved a landmark profit-sharing agreement that is expected to award employees in the booming memory chip division an average bonus of nearly $400,000.
The deal passed on Wednesday with 74 per cent of the company’s labour union voting in favour and ends months of wrangling over how to share the spoils of an AI-driven bonanza at the world’s largest memory-chip maker. The union had threatened to strike if a deal could not be reached.
Under the agreement, 78,000 semiconductor workers will be given 10.5 per cent of the company’s operating profit. This would amount to a bonus pool of more than Won34tn ($22.6bn) based on a forecast by brokerage KB Securities of Won327tn operating profit this year. This is on top of 1.5 per cent handed out through existing bonus schemes.