Samsung Electronics' labor and management enacts a collective agreement for the first time since its inception.
According to the labor and management, Samsung Electronics and the labor union joint negotiation team finally reached an agreement on the conclusion of a collective agreement, and decided to conclude the collective agreement on the 12th.
The labor and management of Samsung Electronics have been negotiating over 30 times in 9 months, starting with a meeting in November last year.
Four labor unions within Samsung Electronics, including the National Samsung Electronics Union under the Korea Federation of Trade Unions and Metal Workers' Union, formed a joint bargaining group and engaged in negotiations.
The labor and management tentatively agreed on the collective agreement at the end of last month, and the union went through the process of ratification, such as voting by union members.
The Samsung Electronics Union, the largest among labor unions, ratified the collective agreement with 96% of the votes in favor of its members.
A collective agreement is an agreement between labor and management to agree on all matters such as working conditions through collective bargaining. It is the highest level of autonomy in the workplace that takes precedence over employment rules or individual labor contracts according to the Labor Union Act.
The collective agreement agreed upon by labor and management consists of 95 articles, including guarantees for union activities, such as guarantees for union offices and the time-off system for full-time union employees, as well as procedures for handling industrial accidents and improvement of the personnel system.
Samsung Electronics' labor and management had previously held collective bargaining, but failed every time, and this is the first time that a collective agreement has been signed.
Based on the signing of the collective agreement, the union plans to start wage negotiations in 2021 soon.