South Korea has a statutory workweek of 52 hours, which might be insufficient for Samsung as its rivals are outpacing it in the semiconductor race because the technology giant became the first company in the region to receive approval from the government to increase its weekly working hours to 64. This extension will be applied to the firm’s R&D staff focused on chip making, with the change expected to propel Samsung’s competitiveness in the industry.
The government approval comes after labor laws were revised, allowing companies like Samsung to increase the statutory work hours to six months per application
As reported by The Chosun Daily, the Ministry of Employment and Labor’s Gyeonggi branch approved Samsung’s request on April 9, meaning that any and all employees working under the R&D division will have to put in the extra hours, though the report does not mention if these employees will be subject to higher compensation due to having to work longer. The South Korean government introduced some changes to the labor laws on March 14, which allows exemptions for companies to extend the 52-hour workweek limit.
The overtime period for employees in Samsung’s R&D sector allows up to 64 hours for a period of six months, after which another application needs to be submitted by the company, which will be subject to approval. Previously, the government’s labor laws allowed overtime to be extended for only three months. Under the new rules, companies like Samsung can seek a one-time extension, with a labor ministry official mentioning that other unnamed semiconductor firms are preparing similar applications in an effort to outpace one another.
Only recently, we reported that Samsung achieved a new milestone by obtaining 2nm yields of 40 percent, up from 30 percent when the company ran a trial production run of the Exynos 2600. This alleged progress reveals that the foundry behemoth is making strides to ensure that it can compete with TSMC, but the report does not mention whether South Korean labor laws protect employees from being overworked to the point of exhaustion or if fair compensation is offered to the workforce.
Source – https://wccftech.com/samsung-receives-approval-to-increase-rd-and-semiconductor-work-hours-to-64/