Samsung reaches partial agreement with sick workers

“Samsung has refused to discuss the issues of apology and compensation with us”, Kwon Young-Eun, a member of the group, told AFP.

Concerning the allegations, Samsung said the compensation terms are based on an agreement between the arbitration committee of the company and the victims. According to the agreement, an “ombudsman committee” – an external group independent of Samsung – will be set up to prevent future outbreaks of occupational diseases by conducting a comprehensive review of risk factors in the work environment. I The members of Banolim, the main advocacy group representing the families of former Samsung employees, reached an agreement on Tuesday with Samsung, with the help of a three-member mediation committee. The committee can also make recommendations to Samsung on its disclosure of chemical hazards and the company’s standards on trade secrets. Workers had frequently complained that trade secrets meant they were denied information about chemicals that might have affected their health.

Samsung Electronics reached a breakthrough agreement on Tuesday that ended a nine-year struggle to come up with measures to protect workers at memory chip factories from leukemia and other work-related diseases.

Samsung and Banolim are still deadlocked over other areas, mainly compensation for Samsung workers who became seriously ill allegedly due to exposure to carcinogens at its chip and LCD factories.

The deal, signed by the South Korean electronics company and two groups representing the victims and their families, aims to improve health and safety conditions at all Samsung’s plants.

The advocacy group, however, said Samsung forced applicants to withhold the terms of the agreement from the public, adding they were given compensation well below their medical expenditures. The controversy began when Hwang Yu-mi, a former worker at the Giheung semiconductor plant operated by Samsung Electronics, died of acute leukemia in March 2007.

“In the big picture, it is correct to say everything has now been settled”, a Samsung official said. The concern announced after the publication of Samsung a 100 billion-won ($83 million) fund in the month of July to reimburse victims and fund preemptive measures. Many had cancers such as leukemia and were aged in their 20s or 30s. But after so many cases in South Korean courts the company said that it is committed to compensating workers and their families.