Samsung device workers plan rally over chip bonus gap

Employees at Samsung Electronics' division for smartphones, televisions, and home appliances are planning a significant protest next week over a massive pay disparity with their colleagues in the company's semiconductor unit. The union for the Device Experience (DX) division said thousands of workers will rally near the company's headquarters in Suwon on July 16.

The core issue is a bonus gap of a hundred to one. Workers in the non-chip divisions are set to receive a 2026 bonus of approximately 6 million won (about $3,900) paid in treasury shares. Meanwhile, employees in the semiconductor division, known as Device Solutions (DS), are expected to receive up to 600 million won following a separate wage deal negotiated by their own union and signed in May.

That agreement, described as unusual in South Korean labor history, committed Samsung to allocate a fixed 10.5 percent of the DS division's operating profit for special performance bonuses, only the second time a major Korean company has written such a profit-share clause into a contract. The DX union, which represents about 28,000 members, argues this treats a company-wide AI windfall as belonging to a single division. One union...