The conflict between Samsung Biologics and the labor union is escalating into a legal battle. The company filed a police complaint alleging that the union branch head leaked internal enterprise resource planning (ERP) data to the outside, while the union denies the allegations.
According to Samsung Biologics on the 13th, the company filed a complaint on the 22nd of last month with the Incheon Yeonsu Police Station against Park Jae-seong, chairperson of the Samsung Group Super-Enterprise Labor Union's Samsung Biologics branch (union leader). The charges include trade secret infringement and defamation.
The document in question is a three-year list of tax invoices sent by major domestic media outlets to Samsung Biologics. It is said to contain advertising and sponsorship expense executions by the company and related department names.
According to the industry, the document was shared in a group chat of some media outlets through Choi Seung-ho, chairperson of the Samsung Group Super-Enterprise Union's Samsung Electronics branch.
The company is said to have identified indications that Park accessed the ERP system with Park's own account to view related data. The system is accessible to all company employees.
The union leadership denies the related allegations. Earlier, through a newsletter, the union criticized the company's spending on publicity, saying, "While demanding cuts on the shop floor, it spends large sums on the media."
In the industry, there is an assessment that the recent labor-management conflict is expanding beyond wage and collective bargaining into a phase of legal response.
In this negotiation, the union is demanding a 14% wage increase and a 30 million won incentive payment. The company, on the other hand, has proposed a 6.2% wage increase and a 6 million won incentive payment. The union is also demanding that a clause requiring the union's prior consent in hiring and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) be included in the collective agreement.
As labor and management failed to narrow their differences, the union launched a full-scale strike from the 1st to the 5th. It then began a compliance struggle by refusing overtime and special work and strengthening compliance with GMP (good manufacturing practice) and standard operating procedures (SOP).
The company has taken legal action. On the 8th, ahead of a three-party meeting among labor, management and government, Samsung Biologics filed complaints against six union members on charges including business obstruction. The reason was that strikes took place in some processes where the court had banned industrial action.
On the 4th, a union member was separately reported to the police on allegations of exerting psychological pressure, including monitoring work and urging employees on duty during the strike to go home.
Inside the company, there is also a sense that labor relations have moved beyond the negotiation phase. One official said, "The time to resolve this through talks is effectively over, and the company appears to be taking a hard-line response."