The Democratic Party of Korea is expected to postpone discussions on the relaxation of the 52-hour work regulation (white-collar exemption) during discussions about the semiconductor special law, making it likely that the shackles identified as a hindrance to strengthening research and development in the domestic semiconductor industry will still be difficult to resolve.
Officials from the domestic semiconductor industry, including the Korea Semiconductor Industry Association, criticize the political sphere for not understanding the global standards for the semiconductor industry and express concerns that the technology gap between overseas corporations that have entered an 'infinite competition' system in the age of artificial intelligence and Korean corporations will widen.
According to the industry on the 7th, as the Democratic Party of Korea is reportedly reviewing options to amend the Minister of Employment and Labor's notice on special extended working hours without including the exception clause for the 52-hour workweek in the semiconductor special law, dissatisfaction is growing among the semiconductor industry, which had high hopes for easing the 52-hour work regulation.
Currently, according to Samsung Electronics's internal employment rules, semiconductor research and development personnel are subject to a flexible work system on a monthly basis. They must meet an average of a 52-hour workweek over the course of a month, even if they do not meet the 52-hour mark each week. If they violate this, the HR department immediately sends a message to the business unit to forcibly halt the work of those personnel. This is because violating the government's 52-hour work regulation could create problems. Thus, there are cases where employees inevitably work 'secretly' to meet delivery deadlines with clients and achieve the desired performance and yield.
A researcher at Samsung Electronics's foundry (contract semiconductor manufacturing) division expressed, "I wonder if the political sphere truly understands how the global semiconductor industry operates" and noted, "In the case of TSMC, specialized personnel are stationed 24 hours to respond in real-time to the demands of clients located around the world, which directly affects trust with clients and subsequently impacts the order performance."
In the rapidly changing AI semiconductor industry, the negative impact of the 52-hour work regulation is the most severe. According to Bloomberg, key researchers in the AI semiconductor industry, led by U.S. corporation Nvidia, also work up to seven days a week, until 2 a.m., for major project work.
Corporations such as Qualcomm and Apple, which possess outstanding technological capabilities in the mobile application processor (AP) field, also operate flexible working systems for key research and development personnel regardless of work hour regulations. An AI semiconductor developer from Apple noted, "In the case of system semiconductors, the outcome is usually decided based on a race against time" and added, "To secure chip performance and yield in a timely manner, it is common to stay up overnight if necessary, rather than simply working overtime."
TSMC also allows its research and development personnel to work beyond legal standards. Former TSMC Chairman Liu Derin publicly mentioned at a past shareholders' meeting, "If you have no intention of engaging in long-hour shift work, you should not consider entering this industry."
Ahn Ki-hyun, executive director of the Semiconductor Industry Association, stated, "What the semiconductor industry wants is not an exception clause for the 52-hour workweek for production workers, but for research and development personnel, and we request that this be brought to at least the same level as our countries' competitors, the United States and China." He added, "Currently, the semiconductor special law is putting our country in a disadvantageous position, and the industry’s stance is that we want this to be normalized."