Samsung Bonus Deal Poised to Pass, but DX Unit and Shareholder Lawsuits Threaten Fallout

Samsung Electronics Co.’s tentative 2026 wage and collective bargaining agreement is nearing approval. More than 90% of union members have voted, tilting the result toward passage. Even so, the company’s legal risks are growing. Opposition led by workers in the device experience, or DX, division has moved into the courts, while minority shareholders are also preparing suits to invalidate the deal. That raises the prospect of prolonged fallout even if the agreement passes.

◇Turnout in wage agreement vote tops 90%

According to the Samsung Electronics branch of the Korean Metal Workers’ Union, the company’s largest union, turnout stood at 92.74% as of 4 p.m. on May 26. Turnout at the National Samsung Electronics Labor Union, the second-largest union, was 85.98%. Combined turnout reached 91.89%. Voting runs until 10 a.m. on May 27. The agreement will be confirmed if a majority of members participate and a majority of votes cast support it. The result will be released at 10:30 a.m.

Industry participants are betting the measure will pass. About 80% of the roughly 57,000 eligible voters in the largest union belong to the semiconductor, or DS, division, while the Donghaeng Union, centered on DX workers opposed to the deal, is not participating in the vote. The tentative agreement calls for an average wage increase of 6.2%, including a 4.1% base pay increase and a 2.1% performance-based increase. It also creates a special management performance bonus for the DS division funded with 10.5% of operating profit. Under that formula, memory division employees earning an annual salary of 100 million won ($72,500) would receive 570 million won ($413,000) from the special bonus alone. Even employees in loss-making businesses would get 160 million won ($116,000) this year. By contrast, DX employees would receive just 6 million won ($4,350) in special bonuses.

◇DX union moves to halt vote

Internal tensions over the stark gap in bonuses between divisions are intensifying. While the labor-management standoff appears to be winding down, legal action led by DX workers is spreading. The Donghaeng Union filed an injunction with Suwon District Court on the morning of May 26, seeking to immediately halt voting on the tentative agreement a day before balloting closes. The first hearing is scheduled for May 29.

Park Jae-yong, chairman of the Donghaeng Union, said the group would keep fighting to secure a reasonable alternative for DX members excluded from the tentative agreement. If voting ends before the court rules on the injunction, the union also plans to seek another injunction to suspend the agreement’s effect. Membership in the Donghaeng Union has surged to more than 13,000 from about 2,600 since the tentative agreement was disclosed.

The first legal bid to block decision-making by the DS-heavy larger union was rejected later on May 26. The court dismissed an injunction request filed by a legal response group of five Samsung Electronics DX employees against the larger union to halt the 2026 wage and collective bargaining process. It said the bargaining demands themselves did not appear to contain a material defect.

Even after that ruling, additional legal disputes over suspending the agreement’s effect are pending, suggesting the conflict between unions will not subside quickly.

A courtroom fight with shareholders is also drawing closer. The Korea Shareholder Activism Headquarters, led by minority shareholder platform ACT, has argued that the tentative agreement infringes on the board’s and shareholder meeting’s exclusive authority under commercial law over profit disposition. The group plans to file suit after the court announces its decision on the Donghaeng Union’s injunction request. It applied to inspect the shareholder register on May 19 and could review it as early as May 27.

"With labor and minority shareholders now at odds, a second round will begin after voting ends on May 27, with court rulings as the trigger," an industry official said.

Kim Chae-yeon/Won Jong-hwan, Hankyung.com reporters why29@hankyung.com