SEOUL, Nov 23, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Samsung Electronics apologised Friday to
workers who developed cancer after working at its semiconductor factories,
finally ending a decade-long dispute at the world’s top chipmaker.
“We sincerely apologise to the workers who suffered from illness and their
families,” said the firm’s co-president Kim Ki-nam.
“We have failed to properly manage health risks at our semiconductor and
LCD factories.”
Samsung Electronics is the world’s biggest mobile phone manufacturer and
chipmaker and the flagship subsidiary of the Samsung Group, by far the
biggest of the family-controlled conglomerates that dominate the South’s
economy.
It has played a key part in the South’s rise to become the world’s 11th-
largest economy, but has also faced accusations of murky political
connections.
Its de facto leader Lee Jae-yong was found guilty of bribing former
president Park Geun-hye as part of the corruption scandal that brought her
down and spent almost a year in prison before most of his convictions were
overturned on appeal and he was released.
Campaign groups say that 320 people have suffered from work-related
illnesses after being employed by Samsung Electronics, with 118 of them
dying.
Under a deal announced earlier this month, the firm will pay compensation
of up to 150 million won ($133,000) per case.
It covers 16 types of cancer, some other rare illnesses, miscarriages and
congenital diseases suffered by the workers’ children. Claimants can have
worked at plants as far back as 1984.
The scandal emerged in 2007 when former workers at its semiconductor and
display factories in Suwon, south of Seoul, and their families said that
staff had been diagnosed or died of various forms of cancer.
A series of rulings and decisions by courts, Seoul’s state labour welfare
agency and a mediation committee followed over more than 10 years,
culminating in Friday’s announcement.
Relatives’ leader Hwang Sang-gi, whose 22-year-old daughter died of
leukaemia in 2007, told reporters he was glad he could now keep the promises
he made her.
But he went on: “The apology honestly was not enough for the families of
the victims but we will accept it.
“No amount of apology will be enough to heal all the insults, the pain of
industrial injuries and the suffering of losing one’s family.
“I cannot forget the pain she and our family went through. Too many people
have suffered the same fate.”