Samsung¡¯s Everland raided by prosecutors on charge of union busting

2018.09.18 14:07:03 | 2018.09.18 14:07:40

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South Korean prosecution on Monday raided the headquarters of Everland, the nation¡¯s biggest theme park operated by Samsung Group, on suspicion of obstructing union activities.

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors¡¯ Office said that investigators seized related materials including documents on labor-management relationship and computer hard disks during the raid of the head office in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province.

Prosecutors recently embarked an investigation after receiving a complaint claiming the management of Everland had threatened workers not to join the labor union or withdraw from it. Prosecutors who have also been looking into Samsung Electronics Service Co., an after-sales service unit of Samsung Electronics, for similar allegations, are expected to widen the scope of the probe into other Samsung affiliates. Everland is owned by the group¡¯s trading and resort unit Samsung C&T.

In 2013, the labor union of Everland sued 36 Samsung¡¯s high-ranking officials including Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee after the release of a document that reportedly contained strategies to break up the union through regular supervision on unionized workers, unfair punishment and dismissal. But the case was acquitted in 2015 by the prosecution who concluded that there was no clear evidence that Samsung had drawn up the document, and it was also difficult to punish the group just for writing the document.

However, the workers filed a complaint again in April this year, saying that the prosecution¡¯s acquittal in 2015 was wrong. They sued 39 Samsung officials including Lee, his son and Vice Chairman Jay Y. Lee and Hotel Shilla President Lee Boo-jin.

By Song Gwang-sup and Choi Mira

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