A recent Associated Press report had alleged that South Korean authorities had on the request of Samsung repeatedly failed to inform workers and their families about the chemicals they were exposed to at its computer chip and liquid crystal display factories.
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In at least six cases involving 10 workers, the justification for withholding information was the protection of trade secrets.
It also does not hurt that the South Korean government does not penalize companies for withholding information needed “to protect the lives, physical safety, and health” of people on the basis of holding on to their trade secrets, even though the firms are technically prohibited from doing so.
The father of a 22-year-old woman who died of leukemia after working at a Samsung facility that manufactures computer chips for various devices tried to get a list of the chemicals she was exposed to after learning that a second worker at the same assembly line also died of leukemia.
When Hwang sued after his first claim for government compensation was denied, he struggled to get details about the factory environment.
However, documents from courts and the labor ministry show that as recently as a year ago, Samsung asked the government not to disclose details of chemical exposure levels and other inspections – even at judges’ request for use in workers’ compensation lawsuits.
Samsung said it has never “intentionally” blocked workers from accessing information and that it is transparent about all chemicals it is required to disclose to the government.
In a separate response to the AP report, a South Korean legislator said that there were other cases where the labor ministry did not evaluate Samsung’s trade secrets, obscuring information about workplace hazards.
On ocassion government officials have openly said corporate interests take priority, that evaluating trade secrets claims is hard, and that they fear being sued for sharing data against a company’s will. However, companies that claim the information is part of its trade secrets do not have to disclose it. Applications for government compensation that lack information about which chemicals are used are typically denied.
Samsung is South Korea’s biggest company, with about 100,000 workers.
The former Samsung semiconductor and LCD workers who became unwell were mostly in their 20s and 30s.
Samsung’s CEO issued a formal apology to ailing workers in 2014, though some of them consider it inadequate.
The company also promised to give workers documents they need to seek compensation, and this year it launched an ombudsman committee to oversee independent inspections of some factories.
Park Min-Sook, 43, a former Samsung chip worker and breast cancer survivor stated that in a situation the place individuals’ lives are at stake, Samsung brought uninformed children from the countryside and acted like money is the whole thing, using them as in the event that they have been disposable cups. Hwang told the Associated Press that Samsung offered him 1 billion won to compensate the death of his daughter and in exchange of his silence.
A group of workers’ families has said 76 people have died due to contact with the chemicals.
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Samsung stated on its site that their chemical administration system is rigorous and state-of-the-art work.
