"Semiconductor Workers Get 600 Million Won, While We Get 6 Million?" — Samsung Employees Boil Over at Extreme Bonus Disparity

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[Financial News] Samsung Electronics labor and management reached a tentative agreement on the 2026 wage negotiations, but the atmosphere inside the company is turning increasingly tense over what employees are calling a record bonus gap.
At the center of the internal conflict is the creation of a new "special management performance bonus" for the Device Solutions division in the tentative deal. The agreement keeps the existing Operating Profit Incentive system in place, but introduces a bold measure that allocates 10.5% of the division's business performance as bonus funds for the Device Solutions division alone.
If the Device Solutions division's operating profit is assumed to reach 300 trillion won, about 31.5 trillion won would be used for bonuses. Forty percent of that pool would be distributed equally among all Device Solutions employees, while the remaining 60% would be paid out differentially based on each business unit's performance.
By contrast, the DX (Device eXperience) Division was excluded from the special bonus program and will receive only Samsung shares worth 6 million won as a settlement payment.
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As the huge bonus gap became clear, employees in the DX division have voiced strong feelings of alienation and betrayal. Even the non-memory business units, which are running losses, are set to receive large bonuses, and anonymous internal forums have been flooded with complaints such as, "When the Device Solutions division was posting massive losses in the past, DX kept investing with the money it earned. Now they are treating us like a different company, and it feels like a betrayal," "Being transferred to DX is scarier than missing a promotion," and "It feels like the company is split into Samsung Electronics and Samsung Electronics after all."
The backlash is quickly leading to union departures. DX members are leaving the Samsung Group Supra-Enterprise Labor Union, Samsung Electronics Branch, which led the negotiations, saying it only represented the interests of the Device Solutions division. The union's membership, which once exceeded 75,000, had fallen sharply to 70,850 as of the 21st.
Meanwhile, the Samsung Electronics Labor Union Donghaeng, which is not based on semiconductors, is benefiting from the fallout. Its membership, which stood at just over 2,300 earlier this month, has surged nearly fivefold to 11,172 in less than a month. The union is now demanding a formal meeting with the CEO to discuss measures to address the exclusion of the DX division.
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Some DX members have also begun legal action, filing for an injunction to suspend collective bargaining against the Samsung Group Supra-Enterprise Labor Union, Samsung Electronics Branch. They argue that unchecked power excluded the 15,000-member DX division and the Customer Service and Support Team from the negotiations.
The unprecedented prospect of a large-scale general strike has been narrowly avoided, but critics say the agreement has exposed structural conflict inside Samsung Electronics. If business conditions shift and DX performance improves while the Device Solutions division slows, the dispute over the current bonus system could flare up again at any time.
Meanwhile, the vote by union members on the tentative agreement is scheduled to run from 2 p.m. on the 22nd until 10 a.m. on the 27th.
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moon@fnnews.com Moon Young-jin Reporter