Samsung workers vote on 2026 wage deal amid bonus dispute

Samsung Electronics workers began voting on Friday on a tentative wage agreement for 2026, as tensions rise over widening differences in performance bonuses between the company’s business divisions, according to Yonhap News Agency, News.Az reports, citing Xinhua.

Around 89,000 union members are eligible to take part in the vote, which will run until 10 a.m. on May 27. The agreement will be approved if a majority of eligible members participate and more than half vote in favor.

Under the tentative deal reached on Wednesday, Samsung Electronics management and labor agreed to create a special bonus pool for the device solutions (DS) semiconductor division, funded by 10.5 percent of business performance.

The agreement also includes an average wage increase of 6.2 percent and the introduction of a housing loan program.

Of the bonus pool, 40 percent would be distributed as a division-wide payout, while the remaining 60 percent would be allocated based on the performance of individual business units.

However, opposition has grown among employees in the device experience (DX) division, which oversees smartphones, home appliances, and TVs, as weaker earnings are expected to result in significantly lower bonuses compared with semiconductor staff.

Membership in a DX-focused labor union reportedly surged from about 2,600 to more than 12,000 within a day, as employees rushed to join ahead of the vote.

Samsung Electronics’ largest union said DX-focused union members would be excluded from the official vote because that union withdrew from the joint bargaining group before the tentative agreement was reached. The DX union, however, plans to hold its own separate vote among its members.

News.Az 

By Nijat Babayev