Samsung Electronics Device Experience (DX) division employees arrive for work dressed in black at the company's Seoul R&D Campus in Umyeon-dong, Seocho-gu, Seoul, in June to protest disparities in performance bonuses. [Yonhap]
Samsung Electronics Device Experience (DX) division employees arrive for work dressed in black at the company's Seoul R&D Campus in Umyeon-dong, Seocho-gu, Seoul, in June to protest disparities in performance bonuses. [Yonhap]

The union representing employees of Samsung Electronics' Device Experience (DX) division — which oversees the company's finished-product businesses — has announced a rally in front of the company's Seocho headquarters in Seocho-gu, Seoul, on Friday, reigniting labor-management tensions over performance bonuses.

The DX division is already in crisis, having posted its first-ever quarterly loss in the second quarter amid soaring component prices — including memory chips — and weakening demand, with analysts warning of a full-year loss this year. Yet the union is demanding treasury stock worth approximately 11 trillion won ($7.77 billion), drawing criticism that the demand is unreasonable and ignores the company's financial situation.

According to industry sources, the Samsung Electronics Donghang union — made up of DX division employees — plans to hold a rally starting at 3:30 p.m. Friday in front of the Seocho headquarters. As of 8 a.m. Friday, the union had 30,408 members.

DX division employees have been joining the Donghang union in large numbers since a wage agreement was reached in May over a revised performance bonus system, driven by discontent over the gap between their bonuses and those paid to colleagues in the semiconductor division.

The union is calling on management to scrap the 2026 wage agreement entirely and draw up a new compensation package providing 1,000 treasury shares per employee.

Granting 1,000 treasury shares to each of the approximately 49,345 DX division employees would require a total of 49.345 million shares — a sum amounting to roughly 11.4 trillion won.

Despite the DX division's deteriorating earnings, the company had already moved proactively on July 8, distributing treasury shares worth 6 million won per employee — a total of 1,083,434 shares — as compensation. The total value of that payout came to approximately 344.5 billion won.

Officials from the Samsung Electronics Donghang union, led primarily by Device Experience (DX) division employees, walk toward the Suwon District Court in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, in May to file an injunction seeking to halt a vote on a tentative labor-management wage agreement. [Yonhap]
Officials from the Samsung Electronics Donghang union, led primarily by Device Experience (DX) division employees, walk toward the Suwon District Court in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, in May to file an injunction seeking to halt a vote on a tentative labor-management wage agreement. [Yonhap]

Company-wide improvements already in effect include a 6.2 percent pay raise, a new in-house housing loan program and increased childbirth allowances.

The union's push to void the existing wage agreement — including demands for renegotiation even after the treasury share distribution has already been completed — has failed to win sympathy inside or outside the company.

Critics say awarding excessive compensation amid deteriorating earnings would not only weaken the company's financial health but also infringe on shareholders' residual claims — effectively functioning as a "pre-dividend" that could erode market and investor confidence.

"It is hard to understand why the union is demanding unreasonable compensation that defies common sense at a time when the company is facing a loss crisis," a business community official said. "Now is the time to concentrate the entire company's resources on the fundamental task of restoring earnings, rather than taking action without justification."

Critics also say the union's demand for 1,000 treasury shares per employee lacks persuasive force because it effectively asks that resources generated by the Device Solutions (DS) semiconductor division be distributed regardless of each division's own performance.

Since 2017, Samsung Electronics has operated the DX and DS divisions as effectively separate entities, with independent finance and human resources functions. Performance bonus pools are also kept separate. A telling example came in 2024, when the DS division received no bonuses during a semiconductor downturn while the Mobile Experience (MX) business unit paid out the equivalent of 50 percent of annual salary.

The Samsung Electronics chapter of the cross-company union, which led the 2026 wage negotiations, has said it will conduct separate bargaining with the DX division starting from the next wage and collective agreement cycle.

The Donghang union, however, is demanding "advance securing and transparent disclosure of company-wide resources for all employees in 2027" — a position critics say is logically contradictory, as it calls for division-by-division bargaining while insisting on a shared funding pool.

"If negotiations are conducted separately by division, the funding should also be attributed by division. If a common pool is wanted, the entire company should pursue unified bargaining," the business community official said. "Calling for separation when results are good and integration when they are not is a selective demand."


joze@heraldcorp.com