A court has issued an injunction to the effect that staffing at Samsung Electronics semiconductor production facilities must be maintained at normal levels even during the strike. The supra-enterprise union's Samsung Electronics chapter said the court determined that operating with ‘weekend/holiday-level’ staffing is also possible, adding that “this is not a decision that constrains the general strike itself.”

The 31st Civil Division of the Suwon District Court (Presiding Judge Shin Woo-jung) on the 18th partially granted an application by Samsung Electronics for an injunction prohibiting unlawful industrial action against two unions: the supra-enterprise union and the National Samsung Electronics Labor Union.

In its decision, the court stated that one must not suspend, abolish, or interfere with operations that are maintained and run with the same level of staffing, operating hours, operating scale, and duty of care as during ordinary times (ordinary weekdays or weekends/holidays), nor induce union members to do so. The court specified that the unions must pay 100 million won per day if they violate the injunction.

Immediately after the ruling, the supra-enterprise union issued a statement saying, “This decision partially accepts the petitioner (Samsung Electronics)’ intent,” and added, “The petitioner (Samsung Electronics) argued for about 7,000 workers based on weekdays, but the respondent (the union) argued for weekend or holiday staffing, and that part was accepted.” It continued, “With this decision, work based on ‘weekend or holiday staffing’ is possible, so fewer than 7,000 people will be working,” and “in effect, it does not hinder the industrial action at all.”

Previously, Samsung Electronics had argued that to maintain safety and security on semiconductor production lines and to prevent wafer spoilage, about 7,000 employeesabout 8.9% of roughly 78,000 in the DS (semiconductor) divisionneeded to work as normal. The unions countered that even without a weekday basis, safety and security tasks could be carried out with staffing at the weekend/holiday level, when plants typically operate on a reduced scale.

Citing the wording in the decision‘ordinary weekdays or ordinary weekends/holidays’the unions interpreted this as allowing staffing based on weekends/holidays. Accordingly, the number of personnel actually deployed on site during the strike could be lower than the 7,000 claimed by Samsung Electronics, and they argued that the general strike would not be significantly constrained.

The labor community also viewed the court’s decision as not rising to the level of neutralizing the strike itself. An official with the Federation of Korean Trade Unions said, “As the ruling targets only certain tasks, such as preventing damage to equipment and preventing wafer spoilage, it does not go so far as to block the entire strike,” adding, “The court appears not to have gone as far as fully restricting the right to strike, considering the semiconductor industry’s social ramifications.” They also interpreted the court’s use of the phrase ‘weekday or weekend/holiday’ as a ‘compromise judgment’ that leaves room for both sides’ interpretations.

The unions have announced an 18-day general strike starting on the 21st. Labor and management at Samsung Electronics have been engaged in post-adjustment at the Central Labor Relations Commission at the Government Complex Sejong since this morning.