A dispute over performance bonuses at SK hynix amid a semiconductor boom is widening into a broader workplace debate, with subcontracted workers and even support staff seeking a share of payouts.
Subcontracted workers have held rallies, saying that while prime contractors posted record results and paid large bonuses, they worked at the same sites but received no comparable compensation. Workers at SK hynix partner firms have also taken collective action to press for bonus payments.
The push is spreading beyond a single company. In shipbuilding and construction, indirectly employed workers such as cafeteria contractors have also demanded bonuses from prime contractors, extending profit-sharing claims to support personnel not directly tied to production.
The article links the trend to the recently implemented “Yellow Envelope Act,” a revision to labor law that allows subcontracted workers to seek direct bargaining with prime contractors. Some unions have used that channel to demand profit-sharing, including performance bonuses.
As demands broaden, the impact is reaching deeper into industrial structures. Since the law took effect, some cases have expanded bargaining targets beyond prime contractors to project owners, while bargaining agendas have widened from wages and benefits to performance bonuses and direct employment.
The conflict has been especially visible in the semiconductor sector, the article said, as regular employees at major companies receive bonuses worth hundreds of millions of won, fueling a sense of relative deprivation among subcontracted workers in the same production ecosystem. It described a “bonus domino” effect in which subcontractor demands rise as excess profits grow.
SK hynix has reportedly faced bonus demands not only from semiconductor subcontractors but also from the Cargo Truckers Union and cafeteria contractors. The article said farmers and fishers have also joined calls for distribution and “coexistence,” and that broadcasters including MBC have weighed in with views that large bonuses should be shared.
Online commenters reacted sharply, with some describing the demands as “communist.” One wrote, “Koreans talk anti-communism, but they’re more communist than anyone.” Others posted comments such as, “Looking at how society works, communism fits,” “People here like socialism and communism,” “The Yellow Envelope Act saw this future,” “The public’s tendencies are closer to communism,” and “It feels like the country is falling apart.”
The article said the controversy is moving beyond a simple bonus dispute to a broader question of how far responsibility between prime contractors and subcontractors should extend. Since the Yellow Envelope Act took effect, workplaces have increasingly raised the question of “who is the employer, and how far does responsibility go,” with concerns that similar conflicts could spread from semiconductors to shipbuilding, construction and other major industries.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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