SEOUL: Samsung Electronics’ unionised workers in South Korea voted to approve a tentative wage deal, the union said on Wednesday (May 27), averting a strike that threatened to rattle global chip supplies and damage the South Korean economy.

Nearly 74 per cent of the 62,616 workers who cast ballots backed the deal, the union said.

The approval came after a bitter five-month dispute over performance bonuses tied to the company’s booming AI chip business that has created a deep division among workers at the tech conglomerate.

Labour and management had initially reached a tentative agreement last Wednesday following last-minute mediation by South Korea’s Labour Minister, just hours before unionised workers were scheduled to walk off the job.

But a minority union representing the giant’s consumer electronics workers said on Tuesday it has asked a South Korean court to block a vote on a pay deal that primarily benefits their colleagues in the company’s chip divisions.

Under the terms of the ratified agreement, Samsung will implement a new 10-year special performance bonus system for its semiconductor division, alongside an average 6.2 per cent wage hike.