The super-large corporate labor union, which includes five labor unions within the Samsung Group, delivered an official letter to Lee Jae-Yong, chairman of Samsung Electronics, and senior management, demanding improvements to the performance bonus system. This demand comes shortly after the competitor SK hynix decided to abolish the existing performance bonus cap and pay 10% of operating profit as a performance bonus through labor-management agreements.
On the 2nd, according to the industry, the super-large corporate labor union sent an official document titled 'the outdated performance bonus system and unchanged company' to Lee and Jeon Yeong-Hyeon, the institutional sector head of Samsung Electronics' Device Solution (DS), and Roh Tae-Moon, the acting head of Samsung Electronics' Device Experience (DX) sector.
The super-large corporate labor union stated in the official document, 'SK hynix recently confirmed that it will pay 10% of operating profit as a performance bonus through labor-management agreements,' and 'in contrast, Samsung Electronics continues to adhere to an opaque Economic Value Added (EVA) method for its performance bonus system.'
It added, 'The EVA method's criteria can be expressed only as an 'opaque performance bonus system,' which no employee knows how it is calculated,' and 'although the company has operated a performance bonus improvement task force and held several meetings, there have been no subsequent announcements or results.'
Currently, Samsung Electronics and its affiliates are applying the excess profit performance bonus (OPI; formerly PS) system based on annual operating profit, using the EVA method as the calculation standard. EVA is calculated by excluding capital costs such as corporate taxes and investments from operating profit. Therefore, even if operating profit is high, if many expenses were incurred, EVA could be low, according to industry explanations.
Complaints regarding this performance bonus system have been consistently raised for some time. The largest union of Samsung Electronics, the National Samsung Electronics Union (Jeon Sam No), also demanded improvements to the EVA-based excess profit performance bonus (OPI) when it went on its first strike since its establishment on July 7 last year.
The super-large corporate labor union urged, '(The EVA method) means that even with high operating profit, if specific goals are not met, the performance bonus could be 0 won and there is an upper limit,' adding, 'the morale of Samsung Electronics employees and trust in the company have already reached rock bottom. At the very least, please show us some sign of change.'