Samsung Electronics labor and management decided to continue post-mediation under the Central Labor Relations Commission, an agency under the Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL), until 10 p.m. on the 19th. Post-mediation is a procedure in which the commission mediates both sides after their talks break down. Earlier, the commission said it would conduct post-mediation until 7 p.m., but it extended the deadline by three hours.
Samsung Electronics labor and management have been holding a second round of post-mediation for bonus negotiations at the Government Sejong Complex since 10 a.m. that day. Chairperson Park Su-keun of the commission said, just before entering the post-mediation meeting room that morning, when asked, "Will the meeting end at 7 p.m.?," "If possible, we will do so."
However, at around 7:14 p.m., Park Jeong-beom, head of mediation at the commission who was attending the meeting, met reporters outside the room and said, "The current target time (to end post-mediation) is 10 p.m." When asked, "Could post-mediation be extended to tomorrow?," he said, "No. It ends today."
Earlier, after the lunch break, Chairperson Park met with reporters and said, "Two issues remain unresolved." When asked, "What issues?," Park avoided a direct answer, saying, "The most important ones. You know what they are." Given that the Samsung Electronics branch of the Samsung supra-enterprise union has called for scrapping the cap that has limited bonuses to 50% of annual salary and for paying 15% of operating profit as a special bonus, the two issues Park mentioned are presumed to be "whether to abolish the bonus cap" and "the size of the special bonus."
Meanwhile, Samsung Electronics previously held the first round of post-mediation on the 11th to the 13th. At the time, the commission was said to have proposed, among other options, paying 12% of operating profit as a special reward bonus if the company ranked No. 1 in sales and operating profit.
But the union rejected the proposal, and the first round of post-mediation collapsed. The union was reported to have demanded a special reward bonus of 15% of operating profit, not 12%. If the second round of post-mediation also collapses, the union is expected to press ahead with a strike on the 21st.