The Samsung Electronics branch of the Samsung Group inter-enterprise labor union — the company's largest union — has called for the immediate withdrawal of a proposed amendment to the Labor Standards Act that would allow part of workers' wages to be paid in local gift vouchers. The union said the bill "undermines the principle of monetary wage payment" and demanded that any such "experimental scheme" be applied first to the salaries of the lawmakers who sponsored it.
On Wednesday, Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Park Min-gyu introduced the amendment as its lead sponsor. The bill would allow employers to pay a portion of wages in local gift vouchers if the employer and worker reach an agreement.
Under the current Labor Standards Act, wages must in principle be paid in currency. Park's amendment would expand the conditions under which non-monetary payment is permitted — allowing it not only under a collective bargaining agreement but also with consent obtained through an individual employment contract. Local gift vouchers were cited as an example.
Park said the bill's purpose was "to create a virtuous cycle in which corporate profits and the bonuses and performance pay that flow from them contribute to revitalizing local economies."
The inter-enterprise union pushed back sharply, calling the proposal "a dangerous attempt to shake the very foundation of wage payment."
"Paying wages with gift vouchers of uncertain value would instead threaten workers' livelihoods," the union said, and went on to say that "in the employer-employee relationship, consent is unlikely to be truly voluntary and could in effect be coerced."
The union also said that "if the sponsors are truly convinced that local gift vouchers are no different from currency, they should apply this experimental scheme not to workers' wages but to the salaries of the lawmakers whose names appear on the bill," adding that "workers have the right to decide how they receive their wages, and that is not a matter to be dictated by legislation."
The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions and the Federation of Korean Trade Unions also immediately rebuffed the bill.
Market analysts project that Samsung Electronics' semiconductor division and SK hynix will each post operating profit of around 400 trillion won ($266 billion) and in the mid-300 trillion won range, respectively, this year. Depending on labor-management negotiations, average per-employee performance bonuses of hundreds of millions of won are expected in early next year.
Voices in government and political circles have argued that profits on this scale cannot be viewed solely as belonging to workers, calling for discussions on redistribution measures such as an excess-profit clawback scheme.
In response, employees at Samsung Electronics and SK hynix have been joining a National Assembly public petition calling for a halt to reviews of semiconductor excess-profit clawback policies and the withdrawal of measures seen as undermining corporate competitiveness.
go@heraldcorp.com
