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families and members of civic groups hold placards with the faces of those who died from diseases contracted at Samsung factories

More than sixty people have applied to an independent Samsung Electronics committee providing compensation on leukemia and other occupational diseases. But its unclear relationship with the coordinating committee on the issue is already spawning confusion for victims. Critics are already accusing the company of giving up on “social dialogue” while keeping the scope of compensation recipients narrow.

Samsung Electronics announced on Sept. 23 that 61 people had applied in the five days since its compensation committee for resolving the semiconductor leukemia issue first began accepting applications, with the first compensation payments expected to come as early as the period after next week’s Chuseok holiday.

The compensation committee was launched independently by the company with a fund of 100 billion won (US$83.9 million) after it rejected a Sept. 3 recommendation by the “coordinating committee for resolving problems associated with the occurrence of leukemia and other diseases at Samsung Electronics semiconductor factories and other workplaces” to establish a nonprofit foundation.

Different compensation amounts from the committee are to be offered at different levels to Samsung Electronics and subcontract employees who started work at a semiconductor or LCD workplace prior to Jan. 1, 2011. Diseases for which compensation is offered fall into three categories: Class 1 for leukemia, Class 2 for brain tumors, and Class 3 for ovarian cancer and similar conditions.

But Samsung has remained unclear so far on the relationship between the coordinating and compensation committees. On Sept. 17, the coordinating committee released a statement saying there were “some questions over whether the compensation method suggested by Samsung Electronics can operate concurrently with the coordinating committee’s coordination procedures.”

“A social resolution of the compensation issue can only happen when a harmonious agreement has been reached among bargaining entities representing the compensation recipients,” it advised.

The coordinating committee previously suggested closed-door round table discussions on the issue, with Samsung participating along with the semiconductor worker health and human rights watchdog group Banollim and the Samsung occupational disease family members‘ committee. That proposal has failed to pan out as yet due to various factors, including objections from the family members’ committee.

The result is growing fears among victims that Samsung‘s independent compensation actions will render the coordinating committee toothless and keep the scope of compensation recipients narrow.

“I got a call about how to apply for compensation, but it made me mad to find out that all victims had to go through selective independent reviews instead of getting the same compensation,” said Lee Hye-jeong, a 38-year-old with systemic sclerosis.

“I’m also nervous about the idea of having to apply individually to a compensation committee where Samsung has so much influence,” Lee added.

Victims and family members who have served on the coordinating committee also had harsh words. The group Banollim, an organization of Samsung workers who contracted occupational diseases, said the company “is simply taking compensation applications while rejecting the idea of reaching an agreement through dialogue.”

Meanwhile, a ten thousand-person open letter was published on Sept. 10 in the US urging Samsung Electronics to accept the coordinating committee’s plan. Signatories included the civic group International Campaign for Responsible Technology, professors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and Charles Levenstein, editor emeritus of the industrial safety and public health journal New Solutions.

In response, Samsung continued to maintain it had “accepted most of the coordinating committee’s other suggestions besides the foundation.” It also described the coordinating committee as an “unofficial private group formed by the family members’ committee without any sense of duty.”

By Kim Min-kyung and Lee Jeong-hoon, staff reporters

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