Samsung is expected to lay off up to 30% of its managerial and executive staff despite its first mobile profit growth since the Galaxy S4.
The Korea Times reports the ongoing downsizing efforts will mean some staff in countries where Samsung runs manufacturing plants will be let go.
Human resource staff are said to be meeting with employees and encouraging them to take voluntary redundancy.
Samsung seem to be embarking on a fairly cut-throat restructuring process with one official telling The Korea Times: “average workers with mediocre performance are being advised to leave the company.”
The report states that finance, human resources, and marketing staff are most at risk within Samsung Electronics, the division that brings in the most revenue for the overall Samsung Group.
“Underperformers and managers aged over 50 and officials who failed to be promoted to a higher level are the targets for the voluntary retirement program by Samsung C&T,” another official told the paper.
The news follows declining smartphone profits within the company’s mobile division. The division suffered year-on-year profit drops across each of the last seven quarters.
But this week the company reported a strong third quarter for its mobile division which saw operating profit for the mobile unit hit 2.40 trillion won ($2.1 billion).
That equates to a year-on-year increase of 37%, marking the Korean company’s first year-on-year profit gain since it released the Galaxy S4.
Although this may seem like good news for Samsung, the gain in mobile profit pales in comparison to other business sections within the company.
Semiconductor profits jumped 62% as demand for smartphone memory chips stayed high.
Final decisions on staff cuts will be announced in the first week of December, according to the report.
Samsung refused to comment on this matter when approached.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
