SerpApi.Org
A shareholder rights group filed complaints against Labor Minister Kim Young-hoon and the CEOs of Samsung Electronics and SK hynix on Wednesday, arguing that employee bonuses should never have been subject to labor negotiations in the first place.
Korea Shareholders Movement Headquarters filed a complaint against Kim with the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials, alleging abuse of authority and obstruction of the exercise of rights, along with coercion.
The group claims Kim improperly intervened when he helped broker talks between Samsung Electronics and its union in May, as tensions escalated toward the brink of a general strike, ultimately leading to a tentative agreement.
The latest wage agreements stipulate that Samsung will provide a special semiconductor performance bonus equivalent to 10.5 percent of business performance earnings and that SK hynix will allocate 10 percent of the semiconductor division's operating profit to employee bonuses.
The shareholders' group, however, argues that bonuses aren't a legitimate subject for collective bargaining or labor disputes, and that Kim should have worked to stop the strike rather than steer the two sides toward a settlement. As the minister overseeing labor policy, Kim's role was to guide and block unlawful use of force, not to pressure a settlement by leveraging the strike deadline, it said.
The same organization filed a separate complaint against Samsung Electronics co-CEOs Jeon Young-hyun and Roh Tae-moon and SK hynix CEO Kwak Noh-jung with the National Office of Investigation under the Korean National Police Agency, alleging breach of trust under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes.
The group claims the executives agreed to bonus demands without adequately reviewing the labor agreements, creating a structure that allowed company assets to flow out to employees.
It also argues that tying a fixed share of operating profit to bonus payouts in advance is "unlawful," and that bonuses and other company fund disbursements require shareholder approval, making them inappropriate subjects for autonomous negotiation between labor and management.
BY JEONG JAE-HONG [[email protected]]
