[Anchor]
The generous performance bonuses offered by South Korean semiconductor companies are making waves among overseas competitors. Employees at the Taiwan plant of U.S. chipmaker Micron have demanded performance bonuses on par with South Korean standards, threatening to strike if their demands are not met.
Reporter Jung Hye-jin has the details.
[Reporter]
U.S.-based Micron is the world's third-largest DRAM maker, trailing Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix.
Driven by the global AI boom, Micron's net profit surged 15-fold over the three months starting in March compared to the same period last year, and its stock price has jumped more than 500% over the past year.
This is why the labor union at Micron's Taiwan plant has demanded a share of operating profits, similar to the practices of Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix.
The union at Micron's Taoyuan workplace is reportedly demanding 15% of operating profits, a figure that the Samsung Electronics labor union presented to management during performance bonus negotiations in April.
Following negotiations, Samsung Electronics decided to allocate 10.5% of this year's semiconductor profits, and SK Hynix 10%, as funding for performance bonuses.
South Korean companies' compensation structures have thus become a benchmark for labor-management negotiations across global semiconductor firms.
The management and labor union of Micron are scheduled to hold further negotiations tomorrow (October 27), and the Taiwan government is closely monitoring the situation.
[Lai Ching-te / President of Taiwan: Both labor and management need to negotiate with sincerity and genuine intent to reach the broadest possible consensus.]
Analysts suggest that if the labor dispute at Micron's Taiwan workplace becomes protracted or leads to an actual strike, it could turn into a windfall for Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix.
[Kim Yang-paeng / Senior Researcher at the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade: (From the perspective of client companies) they will likely try to secure products in greater quantities and more quickly. The current prices are likely to rise further, and (higher unit prices) naturally mean increased revenue for Samsung or SK Hynix even if they sell the same volume.]
At a time when countries around the world, including the U.S. and China, are racing to recruit semiconductor talent, the ripple effects of South Korea-origin performance bonuses are spreading to unexpected places.
(Video by Park Hyun-cheol | Video Editing by Jung Yong-hwa)
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