사진 확대

Labor and management at Samsung Electronics will return to negotiations over the bonus dispute under government mediation, three days before the scheduled start of a general strike.

According to the industry on the 18th, both sides will attend the second post-mediation meeting at the National Labor Relations Commission in Government Complex Sejong, starting at 10 a.m. that day.

The two sides failed to reach an agreement during the first post-mediation session on the 11th and 12th.

However, additional talks were arranged after mediation efforts by Minister of Employment and Labor Kim Young-hoon and an appeal from Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong for labor-management dialogue.

There is no fixed deadline for post-mediation at the Central Labor Commission. Park Soo-geun, the commission's chair, has decided to observe the process in person.

The government is even signaling the possibility of invoking emergency arbitration, long seen as the last resort to prevent a strike.

The union is demanding the abolition of the bonus cap, which is equivalent to 50% of annual salary, and wants the payment plan to be formally written into the agreement, including a provision that sets aside 15% of operating profit for bonuses. The company, meanwhile, says it would offer the highest level of compensation in the industry as a special reward if it becomes No. 1, but it opposes institutionalizing the removal of the bonus cap.

If no agreement is reached, the union has said it will launch a general strike from the 21st through the 7th of next month. The number of participants is expected to reach as many as 50,000.

If the strike becomes a reality, it would be Samsung Electronics' second strike since its founding and the largest in scale. Industry observers are warning that the economic damage could reach as much as 100 trillion won.

This article has been translated by GripLabs Mingo AI.