Probe Expanding into Other Samsung Affiliates
Lee Sang-hoon, chairman of Samsung Electronics Co.'s board of directors, and other incumbent and former Samsung executives were indicted on Sept. 27 on charges of hampering labor union activities at Samsung Electronics Services (SES), the electronics giant’s after-sales services affiliate.
The prosecutors indicted a total of 16 former and incumbent top executives of Samsung Electronics and Samsung Electronics Services without physical detention. They also charged three officials of the Korea Employers Federation (KEF) and the heads of seven SES partner companies. When already indicted Samsung officials are included, a total of 32 people have been brought to trial over the allegations that the group attempted to break down the labor unions at SES and its partner firms.
The prosecutors announced the result of their five-month investigation into the allegations that Korea’s largest business group had undertaken the so-called “greening operations” to collapse the SES labor union since its establishment in 2013.
According to the prosecutors, the indicted officials of SES and its partner companies pressured their employees to quit labor unions and threatened to cut wages of employees linked to unions. They also sought to make union-friendly partner companies go under and prevent their employees from finding reemployment.
The prosecutors said Samsung Group acted systematically on the group level to crack down on union activities. “The group has committed organized crime for a prolonged period of time to stick to its policy of ‘union-free management,’” they said.
The group mobilized not only executives from its affiliates and their partner companies but officials from external organizations, including the KEF, National Police Agency and Ministry of Employment and Labor Affairs, according to the prosecutors.
While the prosecutors have wrapped up their investigation into the SES case, they are expanding their probe into other Samsung affiliates, including S-1, a security service affiliate, Samsung Welstory, a catering service and food distribution company, and Samsung Everland, as these companies are also alleged to have made efforts to prevent their employees from setting up a labor union.