Labor Minister to Mediate Samsung Electronics Wage Talks Amid Strike Threat

SEOUL, May 20 (Yonhap) -- Labor Minister Kim Young-hoon will mediate a fresh round of wage negotiations between Samsung Electronics Co. and its largest labor union Wednesday, his office said, in a last-ditch effort to avert a looming strike.

The talks are scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. at a ministry-affiliated office in Suwon, just south of Seoul, the ministry said in a notice to the press, hours after government-mediated talks over performance-based bonuses broke down. The union vowed to go ahead with its planned strike Thursday.

Kim will preside over free collective bargaining between labor and management, which is different from the negotiations mediated by the National Labor Relations Commission this week.

The 4 p.m. talks are also not aimed at producing a legally binding proposal.

Earlier in the day, the labor ministry rejected speculation that the government will issue an emergency arbitration order to halt a strike and prevent it from causing major harm to the country's economy.

"There is still time left for dialogue between labor and management," Hong Kyung-ui, a ministry spokesperson, told reporters at the government complex in the central administrative city of Sejong when asked about the possibility of the order. "It is still too early to specifically speak of that."

Under South Korean law, the labor minister can issue an emergency arbitration order if a dispute is deemed likely to harm the national economy or seriously disrupt the lives of ordinary people.

Such an order would suspend an industrial action for 30 days while the National Labor Relations Commission conducts mediation and arbitration.

"There is still time left until the strike, and the general principle is to resolve the issue through dialogue between the parties involved," Hong said. "The government will provide maximum support regardless of format until the end so that it can be resolved through free collective bargaining between labor and management."