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Labor Ministry to probe Samsung over labor practices

Oct. 21, 2013 - 19:43 By Korea Herald
The Labor Ministry plans to look into allegations that Samsung Group instructed its subsidiaries to foil any attempt by their workers to organize labor unions, a ministry source said Monday.

The move comes after an opposition lawmaker unveiled the conglomerate’s 2012 document on labor-management affairs strategy.

The document carries an instruction that companies should lead employees to disorganize a trade union if one is established, according to Rep. Sim Sang-jung of the minor opposition United Progressive Party who recently disclosed the document.

“We have no choice but to monitor labor conditions (at Samsung) since a related document was unveiled,” a senior official of the ministry said, requesting not to be named.

Samsung Group, which has a declared policy of “no-union management,” has never been under a conglomerate-wide investigation for unjust labor practices although its electronics unit, Samsung Electronics, came under government monitoring for two months earlier this year for its alleged illegal dispatch of employees to other companies.

The official, however, said they need to secure concrete evidence showing that Samsung actually carried out the plan to disrupt the formation of unions in order to prove the charges against it. (Yonhap News)