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.
Taichung reported the steepest fall in completed home prices among the six special municipalities in the first quarter of this year, data compiled by Taiwan Realty Co (台灣房屋) showed yesterday. From January through last month, the average transaction price for completed homes in Taichung fell 8 percent from a year earlier to NT$299,000 (US$9,483) per ping (3.3m²), said Taiwan Realty, which compiled the data based on the government’s price registration platform. The decline could be attributed to many home buyers choosing relatively affordable used homes to live in themselves, instead of newly built homes in the city’s prime property market, Taiwan Realty
The government yesterday approved applications by Alphabet Inc’s Google to invest NT$27.08 billion (US$859.98 million) in Taiwan, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a statement. The Department of Investment Review approved two investments proposed by Google, with much of the funds to be used for data processing and electronic information supply services, as well as inventory procurement businesses in the semiconductor field, the ministry said. It marks the second consecutive year that Google has applied to increase its investment in Taiwan. Google plans to infuse NT$25.34 billion into Charter Investments Ltd (特許投資顧問) through its Singapore-based subsidiary Fructan Holdings Singapore Pte Ltd, and
Micron Technology Inc is a driving force pushing the US Congress to pass legislation that would put new export restrictions on equipment its Chinese competitors use to make their chips, according to people familiar with the matter. A US House of Representatives panel yesterday was to vote on the “MATCH Act,” a bill designed to close gaps in restrictions on chipmaking equipment. It would also pressure foreign companies that sell equipment to Chinese chipmaking facilities to align with export curbs on US companies like Lam Research Corp and Applied Materials Inc. The bill targets facilities operated by China’s ChangXin Memory Technologies Inc
Singapore-based ride-hailing and delivery giant Grab Holdings’ planned acquisition of Foodpanda’s Taiwan operations has yet to enter the formal review stage, as regulators await supplementary documents, the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) said yesterday. Acting FTC Chairman Chen Chih-min (陳志民) told the legislature’s Economics Committee that although Grab submitted its application on March 27, the case has not been officially accepted because required materials remain incomplete. Once the filing is finalized, the FTC would launch a formal probe into the deal, focusing on issues such as cross-shareholding and potential restrictions on market competition, Chen told lawmakers. Grab last month announced that it would acquire
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