Samsung Electronics, Union to Resume Wage Talks Wednesday

SEOUL, May 20 (Yonhap) -- Samsung Electronics Co. and its largest labor union will resume government-led wage mediation talks on Wednesday morning after they failed to bridge their differences during two days of marathon negotiations this week, a state labor dispute resolution body said.

The National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC) said that the second round of mediation talks were adjourned at 12:30 a.m., and that negotiations would resume at 10 a.m.

Labor and management struggled to narrow their differences over performance-based bonuses linked to earnings from the tech giant's artificial intelligence-driven semiconductor business.

"There are various sticking points, and (the two sides) have not reached agreement on the most important one," NLRC Chairman Park Soo-keun said without elaboration.

"The management said that they will come with their final position at 10 a.m. today."

On the remainder of the sticking points, Park hinted that the two sides may have narrowed their differences considerably.

Park also confirmed that his commission has put forward a mediation proposal.

"A decision will come today as to whether the two sides will adopt an agreement or a mediation proposal given that agreement and mediation are (essentially) the same thing," he said.

Should an agreement be reached, the planned talks are expected to conclude in the morning to allow for a union vote on it to proceed.

The two sides had engaged in grueling negotiations over the elimination of bonus caps set at 50 percent of annual salary, how performance bonuses should be distributed to other loss-making business units and other issues.