Samsung Electronics' South Korean union to begin vote on pay agreement

Members of Samsung Electronics' ​South Korean union ​will begin voting on Friday ‌on ​a tentative pay deal reached with the company, with voting due to ‌run into next week, according to a union notice on its website.

Members of Samsung Electronics' ​South Korean union ​will begin voting on Friday ‌on ​a tentative pay deal reached with the company, with voting due to ‌run into next week, according to a union notice on its website. The vote, involving about 89,000 members of two Samsung unions ‌based on Wednesday's count, is being conducted electronically from ‌2:12 p.m. (0512 GMT) on Friday after a brief delay due to a server overload. Voting is due to run until 10 a.m. on ⁠May ​27, the ⁠union said.

Union leaders reached a last-minute deal on Wednesday that averted a ⁠threatened 18-day strike that risked disrupting global semiconductor supply. The agreement includes ​a plan for Samsung to set aside about 10.5% ⁠of its chip division's operating profit for special bonuses for the division ⁠covering ​the memory and logic businesses, with some members set to receive about $416,000.

Approval requires a majority of ⁠all members to participate and a majority of those voting to ⁠support the ⁠deal, otherwise negotiations must restart from scratch. A union leader has said he expected the agreement ‌to ‌be ratified.