Samsung Electronics Semiconductor Disease Compensation Principles for All Victims... Including Children's Illnesses

Comprehensive Support Measures Established at the Company Level

Samsung Electronics stated on the 22nd that it "provides support and compensation regardless of whether it is recognized as an industrial accident" in response to the Korea Workers' Compensation and Welfare Service approving congenital diseases in children of semiconductor factory workers who were exposed to harmful environments during pregnancy as industrial accidents. The company did not issue any specific comments regarding the recognition of industrial accidents by the Service.

Samsung Electronics had previously decided to fully compensate victims after social mediation following issues related to diseases such as leukemia among workers on semiconductor and liquid crystal display (LCD) factory production lines. This was based on the mediation proposal presented in 2018 by the 'Committee for Resolving Issues Related to the Occurrence of Leukemia and Other Diseases in Semiconductor Workplaces' to Samsung Electronics and the victim support civic group 'Banollim'.

Samsung Electronics DS (Semiconductor) Division Hwaseong Campus view. [Photo by Samsung Electronics]

The mediation proposal targets "all current and former employees who have worked for more than one year on the semiconductor and LCD production lines since May 17, 1984, when Samsung Electronics' Giheung Plant Line 1 was completed." Compensation amounts are calculated considering factors such as workplace, length of service, and severity of disease, with a maximum of 150 million KRW for leukemia.

The support and compensation criteria established at that time include cancer, rare diseases, reproductive diseases of both current and former employees, as well as diseases in their children. For men, the target includes those who worked for at least one month on the semiconductor or LCD line from three months before their spouse's pregnancy until the pregnancy, and for women, from three months before pregnancy until childbirth.

On the same day, the Service's Occupational Disease Judgment Committee recognized the causal relationship between the congenital diseases occurring in the children of three workers who had worked as operators at Samsung Electronics' semiconductor factory during pregnancy and their work at the time of employment, deciding to acknowledge these cases as occupational accidents.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.