Samsung Electronics employees have approved a historic profit-sharing deal that is expected to give employees at the booming chip division an average bonus of nearly $400,000, the Korea Herald reports.
About 40% of the bonus fund will be divided equally, while the rest will depend on the performance of each business division, writes Reuters.
The deal comes after South Korean rival SK Hynix signed a similar deal last year in which employees were promised 10 percent of operating profits. That would mean an average bonus of 710 million won ($473,000) for each of SK Hynix's 35,000 employees.
The two companies benefit from growing demand for chips used in artificial intelligence systems. Samsung recently became the first South Korean company to reach $1 trillion in market capitalization.
The deal was passed on Wednesday with 74% of the votes of the company's unions and ends months of disputes over how to share profits. The union had threatened to go on strike if no agreement was reached.
Under the deal, 78,000 semiconductor workers will receive 10.5 percent of the company's operating profits, which will be paid in shares. One-third of the shares will be tradable immediately, one-third after one year and the rest after two years.
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The payments are contingent on Samsung achieving certain profit targets. That would represent a bonus pool of more than 34 trillion won ($22.6 billion), according to a forecast by brokerage KB Securities, cited by the Financial Times (subscription may be required). This is in addition to the 1.5% awarded through existing bonus schemes.
Samsung shares rose more than 6% on Wednesday.
