Following Samsung Electronics' announcement of its record-breaking financial results, its labor union has substantially escalated its demands for performance bonuses, further straining labor-management relations. Initially, the union had only sought the removal of the bonus cap and a modest increase to 10% of profits. However, after the company disclosed its single-quarter operating profit, the union proposed allocating 15% of the annual operating profit to a performance bonus fund.

Based on this new proposal, the bonus pool would amount to a staggering 40.5 trillion Korean won. This figure not only dwarfs the bonus pool of SK Hynix but also quadruples last year's shareholder dividends and even surpasses the projected R&D investment for 2025. On average, employees in the memory business division would receive a pre-tax bonus of approximately 2.85 million yuan each.

Industry experts have branded this demand as "completely outrageous," pointing out that the proposed bonus amount could potentially be used to acquire leading semiconductor design or AI companies. Furthermore, allocating such a significant portion of profits to bonuses would likely constrain investments in the company's core business areas, impeding its long-term growth and exacerbating the already tense labor-management relationship.