Court Limits Strike Action at 9 Samsung Biologics Processes: "Must Maintain Normal Levels"

Appeal ruling on injunction against industrial action
Industrial action restricted across nine processes, including flask culture
Expected to affect second general strike on October 26

The court has ruled that Samsung Biologics must maintain normal operating levels across nine biopharmaceutical production processes even during the period of industrial action. The expanded restrictions, which now cover six additional processes beyond the three covered in the first-instance ruling, are expected to affect the labor union’s response to its announced second general strike on October 26.

A view of Samsung Biologics' plant in Yeonsu-gu, Incheon. The Asia Business Daily archive.

According to industry sources on October 16, the Civil Division 1 of the Incheon Division of the Seoul High Court ruled in an appeal over the company’s petition for an injunction against industrial action that work on six additional processes must not be disrupted and must continue at normal levels. The court found that all nine production processes cited by the company qualified as “preservation work” necessary to prevent raw materials and products from deteriorating or spoiling.

The processes covered are: flask culture, bioreactor culture, harvesting, media preparation and supply, chromatography, viral filtration, concentration and buffer exchange, drug substance filling, and buffer preparation and supply. In its first-instance ruling on April 23, the court had restricted industrial action only on the final three processes: concentration and buffer exchange, drug substance filling, and buffer preparation and supply.

The court specified that the additionally restricted work must be carried out with the same staffing levels, operating hours, scale of operations, and duty of care as before the industrial action. It set the normal weekday levels as the standard for weekdays, and the normal weekend and holiday levels as the standard for weekends and holidays, respectively. The ruling prohibits obstructing the work through physical force, threats of harm, or the distribution of instructions, as well as directing union members to engage in such conduct.

However, the ruling excludes work on cell lines that the company thawed during the industrial action from the additionally restricted work. The ruling is intended to ensure the normal performance of specific production tasks; it does not impose a blanket ban on all union industrial action.

Samsung Biologics and its labor union remain at odds over wage increases and the method for calculating performance bonuses. After holding a partial strike in late April and a full-scale strike in early May, the union has announced a second general strike lasting three weeks from October 26.

A Samsung Biologics official said, “We are grateful for the court’s sound judgment,” adding, “We will continue to make efforts to build a cooperative labor-management relationship.”

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