In connection with allegations that the Samsung Electronics union created a "blacklist of nonunion workers," police moved to obtain internal messenger and email records of union-affiliated employees. After seizing and searching servers at the Samsung Electronics Giheung campus and securing access logs, police appear to be expanding the probe to determine whether a specific employee was involved.
According to the legal community and others on the 20th, the Hwaseong Dongtan Police Station on the 18th executed a search and seizure warrant for servers to check the internal messenger and email records of a union member, identified as A, who works at the Samsung Electronics Pyeongtaek campus.
The case began when the company confirmed that an Excel file containing employees' names, phone numbers, employee numbers, and union membership status had been shared in a group chat for a specific Samsung Electronics department. Viewing the document as a so-called "blacklist" that included union membership status, Samsung Electronics filed a complaint with police on the 9th of last month against an unidentified individual on suspicion of violating the Personal Information Protection Act.
After it was additionally confirmed that a specific employee had looked up employees' personal information on an internal business site, Samsung Electronics filed an additional complaint on the 16th of last month against the employee on suspicion of violating the Personal Information Protection Act.
Police who launched the investigation executed a search and seizure warrant on the 8th for servers that manage internal business sites at the Samsung Electronics Giheung campus. During this process, police reportedly secured multiple IP addresses with unusual access records. The seizure of servers at the Pyeongtaek campus appears intended to determine whether A was involved, based on the access logs obtained at the Giheung campus. A police official said, "We cannot confirm details because we are currently investigating."
Meanwhile, Samsung Electronics labor and management held a third post-mediation meeting at the Central Labor Relations Commission at the Government Sejong Complex at 10 a.m. that day but failed to reach an agreement. With mediation breaking down, the union said it will launch a general strike starting on the 21st.