Samsung Electronics Co and its largest labor union have tentatively agreed to a 5.1 percent wage increase and stock awards for staff this year, signaling efforts by the two sides to defuse tensions that triggered the company’s first-ever labor strike last year.
Under an initial agreement, Samsung would for the first time give 30 shares of the company to all employees — equivalent to about US$1,200 at yesterday’s closing price. Other perks include allowing each employee to purchase 2 million won (US$1,400) worth of Samsung’s electronics products at a discount, Samsung and the union said in a statement yesterday.
The National Samsung Electronics Union, which has about 37,000 members, is to vote on the preliminary agreement from Friday to Wednesday next week. The company is taking a step toward resolving labor tensions at a time when it is ceding market share to rivals in several key arenas. Samsung’s shares slid 1.6 percent in Seoul yesterday,
Photo: AFP
South Korea’s largest company lost more than one-third of its market value last year after failing to close the gap on SK Hynix Inc in the contest to sell advanced memory for Nvidia Corp’s artificial intelligence (AI) accelerators. It is also facing heightened competition in smartphones and other consumer electronics from Chinese rivals.
Among measures agreed upon initially, Samsung would begin a policy to rehire retirees with three or more children — reflecting the higher education costs such employees face and addressing domestic challenges.
South Korea has one of the world’s lowest birthrates, at just 0.72 children per woman in 2023.
The government is pouring more than 380 trillion won into baby-boosting incentives, including subsidies for prenatal care and monthly cash payments for families with children up to five years old.
Other companies are joining the endeavors. Booyoung Group, a housing construction company, began giving 100 million won to each employee who has given birth since last year. Gaming company Krafton Inc is planning to offer similar cash payments to staff.
To many, Tatu City on the outskirts of Nairobi looks like a success. The first city entirely built by a private company to be operational in east Africa, with about 25,000 people living and working there, it accounts for about two-thirds of all foreign investment in Kenya. Its low-tax status has attracted more than 100 businesses including Heineken, coffee brand Dormans, and the biggest call-center and cold-chain transport firms in the region. However, to some local politicians, Tatu City has looked more like a target for extortion. A parade of governors have demanded land worth millions of dollars in exchange
An Indonesian animated movie is smashing regional box office records and could be set for wider success as it prepares to open beyond the Southeast Asian archipelago’s silver screens. Jumbo — a film based on the adventures of main character, Don, a large orphaned Indonesian boy facing bullying at school — last month became the highest-grossing Southeast Asian animated film, raking in more than US$8 million. Released at the end of March to coincide with the Eid holidays after the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, the movie has hit 8 million ticket sales, the third-highest in Indonesian cinema history, Film
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) revenue jumped 48 percent last month, underscoring how electronics firms scrambled to acquire essential components before global tariffs took effect. The main chipmaker for Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp reported monthly sales of NT$349.6 billion (US$11.6 billion). That compares with the average analysts’ estimate for a 38 percent rise in second-quarter revenue. US President Donald Trump’s trade war is prompting economists to retool GDP forecasts worldwide, casting doubt over the outlook for everything from iPhone demand to computing and datacenter construction. However, TSMC — a barometer for global tech spending given its central role in the
Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designer specializing in server chips, expects revenue to decline this year due to sagging demand for 5-nanometer artificial intelligence (AI) chips from a North America-based major customer, a company executive said yesterday. That would be the first contraction in revenue for Alchip as it has been enjoying strong revenue growth over the past few years, benefiting from cloud-service providers’ moves to reduce dependence on Nvidia Corp’s expensive AI chips by building their own AI accelerator by outsourcing chip design. The 5-nanometer chip was supposed to be a new growth engine as the lifecycle
RSS