Samsung, workers agree to end standoff on deaths
SEOUL - Samsung Electronics and a group representing computer chip and display factory workers said on Tuesday they have agreed to end a years-long standoff over compensation for deaths and grave illnesses among employees.
Samsung and the Banolim group said they will unconditionally accept terms of compensation and apologies to be drafted over the next two months by a mediator.
The Banolim group said it will stop its protests outside company buildings, where its supporters camped out for nearly three years to demand that Samsung apologize for making workers sick and provide compensation for their illnesses.
The agreement represents a breakthrough in a more than decade-old civic movement that raised awareness about the health risks from toiling in the lucrative semiconductor industry.
The grassroots movement was started by Hwang Sang-gi, a taxi driver who refused to accept a settlement when his daughter Yu-mi died of leukemia in 2007 at the age of 23 after working at a Samsung chip factory. Hwang's search for the cause of Yu-mi's death galvanized a broader movement to hold businesses and the government accountable for safety lapses in the chip and display industries, which use huge amounts of chemicals.
"It's regrettable that for more than 10 years we could not solve the problem of workers who had no money and no power and died from diseases due to chemicals," Hwang said at a signing ceremony attended by the mediator and Samsung. "But it is fortunate that we found a way to solve the problem of industrial diseases at Samsung."
More than 100 Samsung workers have reported grave illnesses such as leukemia, but only a few won government recognition and compensation for suffering industrial diseases. Increasingly, workers denied such acknowledgment have won court victories in recent years.
Judges have agreed with the need for and importance of using state funds to aid the sickened workers even when they were unable to prove why and how they became ill, sometimes due to a lack of information about the chemicals they were exposed to.
Kim Sun-sig, a senior vice-president at Samsung Electronics, said accepting the proposal without condition was a difficult decision for Samsung.
"Only the complete resolution of the problem would be a consolation to the sickened workers and their families and also valuable for the society," Kim said. "We will actively cooperate with the mediation committee."
Associated Press
(China Daily 07/25/2018 page12)
