Samsung Electronics on Tuesday agreed to create an independent panel for monitoring overall work conditions to help prevent occupational diseases.

The world’s largest electronics company signed a deal outlining these and other measures for improving employee health and safety with groups representing leukemia patients and their families who claim the disease comes from working at Samsung factories. 

A Samsung Group flag flies outside Samsung headquarters building in Seoul. (Yonhap)

Controversy over Samsung’s responsibility for occupational illnesses has been snowballing since 2007 after Hwang Yu-mi, a former employee at a chipmaking facility of the tech giant died from leukemia.

In May 2014, the tech giant for the first time officially offered to compensate the victims. Less than a year later, Samsung vowed to create a 100 billion-won ($82.9 million) fund for compensation and research work-related diseases.

The Protector of Health and Human Rights of Semiconductor Workers, an advocacy group representing the victims who fell ill or died while working at Samsung, claims more than 200 employees at the company’s chip and display production lines are suffering from work-related diseases. As of September, the death toll reached 71, it said, although the figure has yet to be officially verified.

The number of people who received compensation reached 100 as of the end of 2015. Critics say the number is too low, and that Samsung has set the standards for qualification too high.

(khnews@heraldcorp.com)