On July 23, 2015, a formal Mediation Committee established by Samsung and civil society groups issued its ground breaking recommendations to compensate the hundreds of workers who became ill while working at Samsung and to implement innovative prevention policies to protect their workers in the future. More than 70 workers have died due to work related illnesses at Samsung, according to SHARPS, an occupational health advocacy group in South Korea. While critical of some of the compromise aspects of the Committee’s recommendations, SHARPS has embraced  the decision.


Samsung has agreed to the Committee’s recommendation to provide 100 billion won ($85.8 million),  but has rejected the core recommendation — the funding of an independent non-profit foundation — that was the committee’s primary recommendation for implementing the victims compensation and to develop and implement steps to prevent the recurrence of the disease.


We endorse this Open Letter and call on Samsung to accept its corporate social responsibility by accepting the Mediation Committee’s recommendation to establish and fund the independent body to implement the decision.


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