Samsung sees progress in talks over leukemia victims

Tech giant Samsung Electronics said Thursday it launched a committee to handle compensation issues for those who were diagnosed with leukemia while working at the company’s semiconductor factories.

The seven-member compensation committee will consist of four experts in labor, industrial medicine, industrial policy and social policy segments and three respective representatives for the company, the workers and the families of those leukemia patients.
 

Park Ji-soon, a law professor at Korea University Law School, will chair the committee.

The members of the committee will try to fine-tune and approve the details of the compensation measures, including the types of diseases for which Samsung should compensate, proposed by the tech giant last month.

Samsung will start receiving applications for the compensation program online or through a call center next week before the compensation measures are finalized.

Those who meet the compensation standards should summit proof of employment at Samsung and their medical check reports.

According to the initial proposal by Samsung, the tech firm will create a fund worth 100 billion won ($84.2 million) and take swift action to compensate those affected by the deadly disease.

The leukemia case came to the spotlight when a former Samsung semiconductor worker, named Hwang Yu-mi, died from the disease in 2007, and advocacy groups have been running campaigns to hold Samsung accountable for a series of employees’ deaths.

By Kim Young-won (wone0102@heraldcorp.com)