Here’s something you don’t hear about everyday. But apparently, several of Samsung’s factory workers in their semiconductor plant have contracted Leukemia and other incurable diseases. But the good thing is that Samsung is going to pay compensation to these workers. This is vindication for several activists’ groups that have been trying to get compensation for the past seven years. It all started with, then 22-year old Hwang Yu-mi who got Leukemia after being exposed to toxic chemicals at Samsung’s chip plant in Suwon, South Korea in 2007.
Samsung had been denying this for quite some time, and even the Seoul Court decreed that Yu-mi’s illness was more than likely contracted in Samsung’s plant, back in 2011, there was no concrete evidence just yet. Bloomberg Businessweek, however, used the Samsung Galaxy S5 launch as a way to shed more light on this story, which has resulted in what you are seeing today.
Although Samsung still isn’t accepting blame for this, Samsung is going to compensate the workers and their families. Samsung CEO Kwon Oh-hyun, stated:
“Several workers at our production facilities suffered from leukemia and other incurable diseases, which also lead to some deaths. We’ve failed to pay careful attention to the pain and difficulty of them and their families. We will make appropriate compensation to those who were affected and their families. We should have settled the issue earlier, and we are deeply heartbroken that we failed to do so and express our deep apology.”
So it doesn’t bring back the workers that died, nor does it cure the leukemia and other diseases that these workers caught in that plant, but it does at least help them out. Especially with medical bills and such. It’s sad to see this happening at Samsung’s own plant, but at least they’ll be taking proper measures now. And these chips have to be made somewhere.