April 20, 2024

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A Samsung logo is displayed at the MWC in Barcelona on March 2. (AFP-Yonhap)

The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld an additional 16-month jail sentence to former Samsung Electronics Vice President Kang Kyung-hoon for his attempts to break up a labor union in South Korea‘s largest conglomerate.

This is the final court ruling that found the executive guilty over his scheme to sabotage labor union activities at Everland, an operator of an amusement park in Korea. Everland was considered a key affiliate in Samsung’s corporate structure, and has been merged into Samsung C&T, a de facto holding company of the group.

Kang was convicted for the groupwide attempt to obstruct Everland‘s new labor union from securing a right to negotiate, by masterminding the establishment of an employer-influenced union and persuading its employees into the yellow union, from 2011 to 2018. He was also convicted of illegally collecting the personal information of new labor union members and their families and putting them under surveillance.

The sentence was first handed down in a district court in 2019, and the high court upheld the ruling in 2020.

In a separate top court ruling in February 2021, Kang was also convicted of the same charge for obstructing labor union activities at Samsung Electronics Service. He has since been serving a 16-month prison term.

By Son Ji-hyoung (consnow@heraldcorp.com)