Risky chemicals are used during production of some devices, and Samsung is being accused of not having provided crucial information about these chemicals to factory workers.
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A total of 76 people have died and majority are in their 20s and 30s.
Lim Ja-woon, a lawyer who represented 15 sick Samsung workers said “Our fight is often against trade secrets”.
In June, for the first time, the government’s worker safety agency formally designated a case of malignant lymphoma as an occupational disease at a Samsung semiconductor factory, despite Samsung’s refusal to hand over exposure data and other information.
“[Samsung] once offered me 1 billion won ($864,000), asking me to stay silent”, said the father of a former Samsung factory worker who died of leukemia at 22. She died of leukemia four years later.
Compensation for industrial injury, including cancer, has been awarded in some cases, but the group of families say that other claims are being hampered because the South Korean authorities demand the details of which chemicals had caused the illnesses and deaths. In at least six cases involving 10 workers, it was trade secrets.
In South Korea, there is a frequent complaint that government and the conglomerates (with Samsung at the head) are too close for comfort – and for compensation to the families of those who died through work.
Baik Soo-ha, a vice president of Samsung Electronics, told the Associated Press that Samsung has redacted trade secrets and strategies in documents given to people only if their requests made an appearance not “purely” meant to determine work-related illnesses.
Lim’s clients have been unable to get access to full reports on facility inspections, which are produced by third parties to comply with South Korean law, but remain the property of Samsung. The Court documents and interviews with the government officials, employee’s lawyers and their families show that Samsung often cites the need to secure trade secrets when it asks the government officials not to release a particular data. They also find evaluating trade secrets claims is hard and fear being sued for sharing data against a company’s will.
Samsung said the safety of its workers was its “number one priority”.
When asked for comment, Samsung emailed a statement saying it never “intentionally” blocked workers from accessing information and that it is transparent about all chemicals it is required to disclose.
The victims need the information to qualify for compensation. It also said there was no case where information disclosure was “illegally prevented”.
“The problem was that even the labor ministry did not know what those trade secrets were”. Only 10 have won compensation, most after years of court battles.
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According to the company’s statement, under South Korean law, companies are supposed to state whether their products contain toxic substances.
