Samsung Creates Cancer Fund For Affected Employees

Samsung is creating a multi-million pound fund to help its employees who have been affected with health issues caused by working in its factories.

The South Korean manufacturer is investing 100 billion won (£55m) to compensate workers who have been diagnosed with cancer, the company confirmed to Reuters.

The money will also go towards ensuring that such diseases are eliminated at its factories in the future, as well as paying for research and development into other methods to improve worker safety.

Compensation

Samsung said that the fund will make payments to workers or families of those who became sick while working at any of its plants, including contractors.

Around 200 workers are thought to have contracted cancer after working at a Samsung factory, and around 70 of those have since died, according to activist group Sharps, which represents many of the cancer-stricken workers.

Many of these workers have lodged complaints and lawsuits against the company, alleging that diseases such as lymphoma and leukaemia were caused by prolonged exposure to radiation or dangerous chemicals used in Samsung’s factories.

In May 2014, Samsung issued a public apology and offered compensation to workers at one of its semiconductor plants and their families, a move which marked a turning point in the company’s previous stance on the issue.

This apology followed the release of a film that dramatised the case of one Samsung worker who died of leukaemia in 2007 at the age of 23 after working in a Samsung semiconductor factory south of Seoul.

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