"KRW 600 Million vs. KRW 6 Million" — Are They Really in the Same Company?... Samsung DX Employees Go to Work in Black
- Input
- 2026-06-19 05:31:41
- Updated
- 2026-06-19 05:31:41
[Financial News] Employees in Samsung Electronics' Device eXperience Division have launched collective action in protest against the huge gap in performance bonuses compared with the Device Solutions division.
According to industry sources on the 19th, employees in the DX Division took part in a "black clothing campaign" the previous day, wearing black clothes or black masks as they came to work at the company’s headquarters in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province. The group action is being led by Samsung Electronics Labor Union Donghaeng, a union made up mainly of DX Division employees. Office workers joined by wearing black-toned clothes or shoes, while field workers participated by wearing black masks.
The campaign is gradually expanding to workplaces nationwide. It was held in Gangdong-gu, Seoul, on the 10th, in Gumi on the 16th, and in Suwon on this day. Collective action is also scheduled to continue at the Gwangju site on the 23rd and at the Suwon Campus on the 24th. Some employees also staged silent protests during lunch breaks, and a bulletin board covered with Post-it notes expressing workers' grievances was set up at the site.
A compensation gap of up to 100 times... demand for "the same company, the same rights"
The main trigger for the latest collective action was the performance bonus formula included in the tentative wage agreement recently reached between Samsung Electronics management and labor.
The agreement includes a plan to set aside 10.5% of the Device Solutions division's business performance over the next 10 years as a separate fund for the "Special Management Performance Bonus for the Device Solutions division."
A calculation of the expected compensation by division makes the gap clear. If Samsung Electronics' operating profit this year is estimated at KRW 30 trillion, assuming record-high results, employees in the memory business unit within the Device Solutions division could receive up to KRW 600 million per person in compensation, combining the special management performance bonus paid in company stock and the excess profit bonus, based on an annual pre-tax salary of KRW 100 million.
By contrast, employees in the DX Division, which handles home appliances and smartphones, are expected to receive only about KRW 6 million per person in company stock.
As the bonus gap is expected to widen to nearly 100 times depending on the division, despite working for the same company, DX Division employees are said to be feeling an intense sense of relative deprivation.
In response, Donghaeng has launched organized collective action under the slogan "the same company, the same rights." The union is urging members to change their internal messenger profile nicknames to match the slogan, while also raising pressure on management by collectively postponing the signing of this year's salary contracts.
Donghaeng secures a majority vs. internal strife in the supra-enterprise union
The bonus dispute is also shaking up the union landscape inside Samsung Electronics.
As dissatisfaction grew with the Samsung Group Supra-Enterprise Labor Union, Samsung Electronics Chapter, which had led the agreement, a large number of members left the union. In contrast, Donghaeng, which brought together the opposing camp, saw its membership surge to 26,117 as of 6 p.m. on the 18th. That accounts for 50.5% of all employees in the DX Division, which has 51,717 workers, allowing it to secure majority-union status at once. Facing the backlash, the supra-enterprise union took the drastic step of calling a vote to reaffirm Chairperson Choi Seung-ho. The vote will run from the 24th to the 30th, and Choi said that if he is reaffirmed, he will prioritize the Device Solutions division in future negotiations and push for the separation of bargaining units.
moon@fnnews.com Moon Young-jin Reporter