Samsung CEOs Attend a Lecture on Labor Relations

Samsung Electronics vice chairman Lee Jae-yong enters a room in the Samsung Group main office in Seocho-dong, Seoul, on May 6 to announce an apology to the Korean people regarding management succession and labor union issues.

Presidents of Samsung Group affiliates gathered together on June 1 to find a solution to labor-management relations.

The group invited Moon Sung-hyun, chairman of the Economic, Social and Labor Committee, to give a lecture on healthy labor-management relations to the CEO at the Samsung Human Resources Development Institute in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province. On hand were about 20 presidents of Samsung affiliates, including Samsung Electronics vice chairman Kim Ki-nam, Samsung C&T president Lee Young-ho and Samsung Life Insurance president Jeon Young-mook.

During the two-hour lecture, Moon spoke on the characteristics and history of the Korean labor movement, prospects for change in labor-management relations, directions for establishing healthy labor-management partnerships and external views on Samsung's labor-management relations. He also offered suggestions on desirable labor-management relations.

After the lecture, Moon and the Samsung affiliate presidents reportedly exchanged views on establishing new labor-management relations suitable for global companies. "We requested Moon's lecture first, and are mapping out detailed action plans to establish healthy labor-management relations," a Samsung official said,

The Samsung CEOs gathered together for the first time in three years and four months since February 2017. Before then, they met every Wednesday at Samsung Electronics' Seocho headquarters in Seoul for lectures by outside experts and discussion on pending issues, but the meetings were suspended after the group was disbanded in the wake of the Choi Soon-sil scandal.

Among the three recommendations made by the Samsung Compliance Oversight Committee, the group took action on two -- to address labor issues and improve communications with civil society. Samsung reconciled with Kim Yong-hee, a 61-year-old laid-off worker who staged a 355-day sit-in at the intersection of Gangnam Station, on May 29 in an effort to resolve social problems with civic groups.

The group’s invitation of Moon as a lecturer itself was a rare move since he is a leading liberal figure who served as the head of the Metal Workers' Union under the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions and the head of the Democratic Labor Party.

The lecture meeting came following Samsung Electronics vice chairman Lee Jae-yong’s pledge on May 6 to end the group’s no labor union policy and improve communications with society.

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