Samsung Electronics(005930) Police investigating allegations that the union created a so-called "blacklist of non-union members" have sent six people, including Choi, Chairperson of the Samsung Group supra-enterprise union's Samsung Electronics branch (supra-enterprise union), to prosecutors.
According to police and others on the 4th, Hwaseong Dongtan Police Station in Gyeonggi referred Choi, the Chairperson, and others to prosecutors without detention on charges of violating the Personal Information Protection Act.
Choi, the Chairperson, and others are accused of using Samsung Electronics executives' and employees' personal information around March this year, when the risk of a general strike at Samsung Electronics grew, to compile a blacklist containing whether they had joined the union.
Samsung Electronics management confirmed that an Excel file containing employees' names and phone numbers, employee IDs, and whether they had joined the union was shared in a group chat for a specific department, and in April filed a police complaint against an unidentified person on charges of violating the Personal Information Protection Act. Afterward, the company additionally confirmed that a specific employee had looked up employees' personal information on an internal business site, identified that employee, and filed a complaint.
Police continued the investigation, including conducting three searches and seizures. They confirmed the charges against Choi, the Chairperson, and A, an executive of the supra-enterprise union, and sent the case to prosecutors.
During the investigation, it was also confirmed that four members of the supra-enterprise union looked up whether other employees had joined the union, and they were also referred to prosecutors. However, they reportedly only conducted simple lookups out of curiosity and did not turn the information into a list or distribute it.
Samsung Electronics labor and management dramatically defused the situation by preparing a tentative wage agreement on May 20, the day before the planned general strike. At the time, both sides agreed to withdraw various civil and criminal complaints, including over the blacklist allegations. However, violations of the Personal Information Protection Act are not offenses subject to complaint, so investigation or punishment is possible even if a complaint is withdrawn.