Samsung Electronics Co. and its union will have their first wage negotiations on Tuesday as the tech giant prepares to create a healthy union-management culture following its leader’s pledge to drop the “no union” policy of the conglomerate.

Representatives of Samsung’s management and the union will hold the first round of wage negotiations at its factory in Yongin, 49 kilometers south of Seoul.

It will be the first wage negotiations since Lee Jae-yong, the head of the Samsung group, pledged in May 2020 to end the conglomerate’s long-standing practice of not allowing unions.

Their wage negotiations also come two months after the two sides signed the first-ever collective agreement covering union rights and terms of other labor issues.

Until now, Samsung has decided on all pay increases through independent internal advice without negotiating with unionized workers.

For this year, the board has confirmed a 7.5 percent wage increase, but as wage negotiations with the union are now open, the amount of the increase is subject to change.

Samsung has four unions, but they have formed a joint bargaining group to negotiate the wage issues with the company.

The union’s wage bargaining plan has shown that it wants Samsung to raise each worker’s salary by 10 million won ($ 8,440), grant company shares and COVID-19 compensation, and pay 25%. of the company’s operating profit as an incentive.

According to the company tracker Leaders Index, the average salary of Samsung workers would reach 182 million won, up 51% from a year ago, if the company accepts the union’s demands. (Yonhap)