Samsung's union representing non-chip workers is taking legal action to stop the bonus vote.

      A smaller union of Samsung Electronics, representing around 13,000 employees in the company’s smartphone, television, and home appliances sectors, has submitted an injunction to the Suwon District Court in South Korea to stop an ongoing companywide vote on a bonus agreement that would provide significant rewards to memory chip employees while offering minimal benefits to others.

      The Donghaeng union, which is the third-largest union within Samsung and whose members are the least involved in the AI memory surge, filed the injunction on Tuesday. About 57,000 Samsung workers started voting on Friday regarding a preliminary pay deal that, if accepted, would guarantee an average bonus of approximately 600 million won for the memory chip division, while employees in the Device Experience (DX) division—responsible for making phones and TVs—would receive shares worth around 6 million won, resulting in a disparity of about 100 to one.

      The union's objection focuses on both procedural and financial aspects. As reported by the Seoul Economic Daily, the Donghaeng union claims it was excluded from the vote by the larger Cho-Kiup union, which represents the memory workers, due to fears that a DX vote could jeopardize the agreement. The non-chip union stated that it pursued the court action only after being informed of its lack of standing in the voting process.

      The pay agreement itself is a result of two weeks of negotiations. Earlier in May, the National Samsung Electronics Union, comprised of 48,000 members, threatened an 18-day strike that would have been the largest in the chip industry’s history, prompting South Korea’s labor ministry to facilitate a tentative settlement. This settlement abolished a long-standing cap on performance bonuses and allocated 10.5% of annual operating profits for employees.

      Forty percent of this bonus pool is designated for the memory division, while the remaining 60% is distributed among all other business units at Samsung, such as the foundry, smartphone group, and home appliances.

      Reuters first reported on the injunction filing early Tuesday, citing Korean media. The voting is set to conclude on May 27. A decision from the Suwon District Court before that date would compel Samsung to suspend or cancel the vote. Conversely, a ruling afterward, or no ruling at all, would allow the results to be upheld.

      The bonus pool is dependent on the memory division maintaining profitability through the latter half of the decade. The tentative agreement ties payouts to the memory sector generating at least 200 trillion won (around $133 billion) in profits between 2026 and 2028, and an additional 100 trillion won between 2029 and 2035. Essentially, memory workers could receive substantial bonuses only as long as the high-bandwidth memory cycle continues to support them.

      The structural objection from the DX side is that the cycle funding the bonuses does not arise from their work. Samsung’s consumer division has negatively impacted group margins for several quarters, whereas the memory division has benefited almost entirely from the AI hardware boom.

      The Donghaeng filing is asking the court to address whether these profits should be exclusively allocated to the workers closest to the memory division or shared across the entire company. A spokesperson for Samsung did not provide an immediate response to a request for comment. The Donghaeng union stated that it would seek changes to the bonus formula irrespective of the court's decision. Voting will end on Wednesday evening.