"The boy who cried wolf"... It is Aesop's fable that refers to a person who is good at lying. and also it refers to a person who excuses all the time in order to avoid the moment, or tells lies habitually.

These days, Samsung Electronics and Vice-chairman Lee Jae-yong are just like this. Vice-chairman Lee apologized to the public following the recommendations of the Samsung Compliance Monitoring Committee on the 6th when a trial on the case of remand of revocation(suspictions of influnce government policy) and the illicit transfer of managerial rights is underway. In addition, Vice-chairman Lee promised that he would not hand over the managerial rights of Samsung to his children, and that he would guarantee the existence of labor union and labor's three primary rights 

“I will never do anything that breaks the law. I will not lean on expedients or do anything ethically blamed. I am not going to hand over the managerial rights to my children. Now, the term 'Non-union management' no longer comes up in Samsung. We will strictly abide by the industrial relations laws and ensure labor's three primary rights."

Vice-chairman Lee read it directly at the time.

On the 13th, Samsung Electronics had to make another apology.

Samsung Electronics decided to castigate two employees who illegally used the National Assembly pass, including executive (expediently registered as a National Assembly correspondent.) who visited the assembly office for lobby. Along with this situation, he hung his head again, saying, "I sincerely apologize once again for an unsavory occurrence, and we will never make any futher incidents of this."

On the day that Samsung Electronics distributed the apology press release, seven affiliates unions of the Samsung Group were making a statement in front of the National Assembly. They argued, "Regardless of Vice-chairman Lee Jae-yong's public apology, Samsung has maintained an insincere attitude in management-union negotiations. Far from respecting or recognizing the union, Samsung has been trampling on the rights of union's bargain for wages, unilaterally setting a raise wage with the labor-management council and the labor-management council should not be exploited for defoliating uion" 

An employee who works at a Samsung affiliate said, "Every year, internal employees try to become executives of the labor-management committee. it because, when they become executives, they are almost promoted afterwards." It is a sign of doubt that the labor-management committee may be a "Company Agent"

Back to Samsung Electronics' recent apology, the bottom line of Samsung's apology is that the recent issues of Samsung employees' personal deviation just stemmed from loyalty to the company not from company's instructions. but it can be interpreted that Samsung takes refuge in defensive attitude through  tail cut personnel management.

The Samsung Compliance Monitoring Committee recommended that Vice-chairman Lee apologize to the public, ahead of the prosecution of remand of revocation case. No one knows the real hair of Samsung, but the objectives of apology, in outside view, was to get the judicial decision in favour of Vice-chairman Lee Jae-yong. However, on Sep. 1st, the prosecution indicted 11 members, including Samsung Electronics Vice-chairman Lee Jae-yong and former and current executives, for violating the Capital Market Act, External audit law, such as fraudulent transactions and market price control, and professional malpractice.

Last, on the 7th, the personal (?) deviation of Samsung executive was tracked down by the Justice Party, Ryu Ho-jeong. Despite Korean Thanksgiving holiday, this executive visited the assembly office every day, after the company's management was appointed as a witness of National Assembly audit. Through the investigation of Ryu who smelled a bug, his illegal act  was brought to the surface.

The ink is barely dry on the written public apology of Lee Jae-yong, None of the things that Vice Chairman Lee promised, are being kept. Samsung is currently breaking the law, relying on expedients, and being ethically blamed. Management-labor relations Acts are not observed, and the workers union is not guaranteed labor's three primary rights. 

Only time will tell... "I will not pass the company managerial rights to my children," This comment is still ongoing.

Vice-chairman Lee Jae-yong and Samsung end up being the boy that cried wolf.

BK MIN kdf@kdfnews.com