Samsung Electronics, South Korea's tech giant, made a formal apology Friday to former and incumbent workers who had suffered from incurable diseases, such as leukemia, which they got while working at its chip and display panel production lines.
Kim Ki-nam, chief executive at Samsung's device solution division which produces chips and display panels, formally apologized to the victims, saying in a press conference in Seoul that Samsung failed to fully and completely manage health hazards at its semiconductor and LCD panel production lines.
The compensation plan, proposed by a mediation committee between Samsung and Banollim, an advocacy group for the victims, included the damages of up to 150 million won (130,000 U.S. dollars) for former and current workers who worked for at least a year at Samsung's chip and LCD factories.
Samsung's formal apology came more than a decade after controversy emerged over a so-called "Samsung leukemia incident" in March 2007 when a female Samsung employee died of leukemia working at a Samsung chip plant.
Family members had claimed dozens of former Samsung factory workers suffered from leukemia and other blood-related cancer after being exposed to hazardous materials, denied by Samsung which had insisted that its workplace environment was not directly linked to the diseases of the victims.
