South Korea's SK Hynix union members reject wage agreement in vote

South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix's union members voted down a tentative wage agreement on Tuesday, a source close to the situation revealed. Out of 15,045 workers who participated in the ballot, 50.08% opposed the pact, a difference of just 25 votes, according to the source. SK Hynix declined to provide a statement to Reuters at the time of the report, and the source spoke anonymously due to lack of authorization for media interviews.

The agreement, finalized last week, offered a 6.3% wage hike and altered SK Hynix's profit-sharing bonus arrangement. Under the new system, 40% of bonuses would be paid in cash, and 60% in company shares, a change from the previous system where 80% of bonuses were in cash and 20% deferred over two years. However, this year, management proposed allocating over half of the bonuses in shares, which sparked opposition among some workers worried about the stock's volatility.

SK Hynix's shares surged in June due to optimism surrounding the artificial intelligence boom, but plummeted after concerns over excessive spending without adequate returns emerged.

In May, Samsung Electronics reached an agreement with its unionized workforce, averting a strike that could have disrupted supplies. The tech giant committed to allocating 10.5% of its annual semiconductor operating profit to special bonuses, to be paid in company stock with restrictions on the immediate sale of a majority of the shares. SK Hynix's shares were trading down 4.9% at the time of the report, contrasting with a 2.2% decline in the broader KOSPI index.