A person walks past Samsung Electronics' office in Seocho District, Seoul, Monday, when a district court partially accepted the company's injunction request to block a strike by its labor unions amid an ongoing government-arranged mediation session between labor and management. Yonhap

A district court put the brakes on Samsung Electronics unions’ plan to go on strike for 18 days starting Thursday, partially banning a labor action that would shut down production facilities as it accepted most of Samsung management’s requests on Monday.

The injunction ruling came just as the company’s labor and management resumed talks in an additional government-arranged mediation session to discuss the unions' demands for higher performance-based bonuses and the removal of a payout cap.

Although the ruling still allows the walkout, it effectively undermines the unions’ leverage because it ordered them to maintain minimum operations to prevent damage to production facilities and raw materials.

In the ruling, the Suwon District Court said that the workforce must be maintained at normal levels even during a strike, in order to prevent potential damage to safety-related and other facilities, as well as the company’s products.

It also accepted management's argument that wafer preservation falls under essential work that should continue, in order to prevent damage to production facilities and the deterioration of raw materials or products.

It also restricted Samsung Electronics Labor Union (SELU), the largest of the company's three unions, from taking over company facilities or preventing workers from entering them.

To ensure the unions’ compliance, the court said each of the three unions should pay 100 million won ($66,745), along with 10 million won from Choi Seung-ho, chairman of SELU, for each day they violate these orders.

Choi Seung-ho, center, leader of Samsung Electronics Labor Union, enters a meeting room for a mediation session between labor and management at the National Labor Relations Commission in Sejong, Monday. Joint Press Corps

While industry officials view the court as having effectively ruled that strikes aimed at bringing production facilities to a standstill cannot be tolerated, the unions said the ruling does not hamper their collective action.

Source: Korea Times News