Professional Documents
Culture Documents
cms
was based on reconstructed exposures estimated by similar exposure groups. Court case continues The finding comes after a Seoul court last month ruled in favour of two former Samsung employees. In its ruling, the Seoul Administrative Court said although the precise cause of the workers' illness wasn't clear, it can be construed that their exposures to chemicals may have had some connection with their illness. A total of nine cases are filed against the government-run Korea Workers Compensation & Welfare Service but not directly against Samsung. The government fund said it appealed against the ruling on Thursday and Samsung said its review was not aimed at influencing the court case. "It's not part of our legal strategy but rather part of our attempt to fully access whether there are any problems in Samsung's working environment," a Samsung executive in legal department told reporters. Civic groups and activists expressed scepticism about results of the study, which was reviewed by researchers from Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University, University of Michigan and Yale University. Samsung didn't disclose the full report of the review, citing confidentiality agreement with its chemicals suppliers, and said it will consider releasing parts of the document after more review. If the court case is finalised as industrial accident, it could deal a blow to the reputation of Samsung, which boasts a global high-tech manufacturer of flat screens, semiconductors and handsets. Samsung reiterated on Thursday that chemicals used during the chip making process at its plants had not caused the cancers. "Samsung has worked to transparently address questions about workplace health and safety...We believe this study...is consistent with previous studies that found no correlation between the workplace environment and employee illness," Kwon Oh-hyun, head of Samsung's chip business, told reporters. The reputation of the electronics sector as a clean industry has been challenged in the past decade by cancer developments from those who worked at computer parts manufacturer. In 2003, two former workers of International Business Machine sued the firm, claiming their exposure to chemicals in computer disk drive factory made them sick and ultimately gave them cancer. Later the claim was cleared by a US court, and IBM commissioned independent review,
which concluded that its workplace conditions did not cause cancer or other fatal illnesses