Ahead of a planned strike by the CDMO’s labor union later this month, Samsung Biologics has secured a Korean court ruling in its favor, shielding the bulk of its drug substance manufacturing from industrial action.
Late last week, the Seoul High Court granted an injunction that prohibits strike efforts across the full nine “core stages” of the production process at Samsung Biologics’ massive Songdo campus in South Korea.
The appellate court’s ruling specifically covers steps related to flask culture, bioreactor culture, harvest, media preparation and supply, chromatography, viral filtration, concentration and buffer exchange, drug substance filling and buffer preparation and supply, according to a Samsung Biologics fact sheet sent to Fierce.
The ruling was intended to safeguard manufacturing operations at Samsung Bio amid a threatened strike that the company’s labor union had planned to begin Oct. 26 following an impasse in wage negotiations with the CDMO.
But as of Tuesday, the union had decided to postpone the strike, multiple Korean news outlets reported, citing both the bulwark imposed by last week’s court ruling and an apparent low level of commitment by members to take action as planned.
Fierce has reached out to the Samsung Biologics labor union for comment on the latest developments.
The company, for its part, contended in a statement that biologics manufacturing “depends on living cells and time-sensitive steps that cannot be paused without risking the medicines patients rely on.
“We fully respect and welcome the court's recognition of this,” Samsung Biologics continued, adding that it’s prioritizing “uninterrupted, quality-assured supply for our clients and their patients, and we remain committed to dialogue with our employees toward a mutual agreement.”
The company’s business continuity plans and communications with clients remain unchanged, Samsung Biologics added.
In making its decision, the Seoul High Court acknowledged that the now-protected processes “are required to prevent the deterioration or spoilage of raw materials and products,” Samsung Biologics said.
With the ruling, any strike action that does take place must ensure that those particular operations continue with the same staffing levels, working hours, production scale and “duty of care” as in normal conditions, the CDMO added.
Before reports emerged that the union had postponed its planned Oct. 26 strike, the group indicated that it would appeal the court ruling but acknowledged that the strike date would likely change, Seoul Economic Daily reported earlier Tuesday.
The labor union started laying the groundwork for industrial action early in the year, with the group noting at the time that the issue was “not merely a wage dispute,” and that some workers harbored “deep structural concerns regarding the company’s [environmental, social and governance] management, lack of operational autonomy, and passive labor relations.”
Pay has naturally remained an issue of concern too, with the union in March spotlighting what it characterized as a “lack of independent bargaining authority” around wage conditions.
Workers ultimately initiated a general strike on May 1, with Samsung Biologics noting early into the action that it was taking a roughly 150 billion Korean won hit to make “preemptive production adjustments implemented to mitigate potential impacts across manufacturing lines.”
An earlier ruling from the Seoul High Court in April had determined that the industrial action injunction should apply to “at least the final three stages of the manufacturing process,” Samsung Biologics explained in its fact sheet this week. That afforded the union more wiggle room to carry on with the strike earlier in the year.
The latest injunction, however, has carried those restrictions across “all nine stages” of the drug substance process, the company reiterated.
The latest strike threat followed a stalemate after three rounds of mediation between the union and Samsung Biologics management in September, and it would have marked the first such action since the walkout in May, according to local outlet The Chosun Daily.
The union had been seeking a 9.5% wage increase and a fixed payment, compared with the 6.2% raise Samsung Biologics had offered alongside a proposal to provide interest support for employees purchasing company shares.
Since the five-day strike in May, the union has continued to pressure Samsung Biologics by refusing to work overtime or on holidays, according to The Chosun Daily.