"Cannot Accept This": Backlash Erupts Over SK Hynix Performance Bonuses

[Anchor]

Following Samsung Electronics, which nearly went on strike, a labor-management conflict over performance bonuses has now surfaced at SK Hynix. The management proposed paying part of the bonuses in company stock instead of cash, sparking strong backlash from the union.

Here is a report by Jeong Seong-jin.

[Reporter]

Just a year after SK Hynix management and the union agreed to pay 10 percent of operating profit as performance bonuses with no upper limit for 10 years, the two sides have entered a tug-of-war.

Under the current structure, 80 percent of the performance bonus is paid in cash within the same year, and the remaining 20 percent is distributed in cash over two years. Employees can also choose to receive up to 50 percent of their bonus in company stock.

However, management placed a proposal on this year's wage negotiation table to make company stock a mandatory form of payment for a portion of the performance bonuses.

With SK Hynix's operating profit projected to exceed 200 trillion won this year due to a record semiconductor boom, employees are expected to receive performance bonuses exceeding 600 million won per person.

Industry observers interpret this move as reflecting management decisions to address social controversies surrounding the size of the bonuses, the financial burden of large-scale cash payouts, and the desire to tie employee compensation to corporate value.

Additional pressures reportedly include the spread of similar demands to other major conglomerates—which drove Samsung Electronics to the brink of a strike—as well as intensifying pushback from shareholders.

[Chey Tae-won / SK Group Chairman (on the 15th): "I believe our current stance is that one should not become happy by breaking the happiness of stakeholders..."]

With the union firmly countering that it will never accept any changes that result in losses, the gap reportedly remained unbridled during the third round of negotiations on the 14th and yesterday's intensive working-level talks.

Amid the renewed controversy over performance bonuses, President Lee Jae-myung pointed out that the scope of subjects eligible for labor disputes seems to be expanding too broadly.

[President Lee Jae-myung (yesterday, Cabinet meeting): "The issue of distributing a certain percentage of operating profit—is that really an eligible subject for a labor dispute? In my view, it leans more toward not being one."]

Meanwhile, a shareholder group argued that performance bonuses are not subject to labor-management negotiations and filed complaints with investigative authorities against Minister of Employment and Labor Kim Young-hoon and the CEOs of Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix.

(Video Editing: Park Na-young, Design: Seo Seung-hyun)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.