Samsung Vows to Compensate Employees Over Cancer Claims

Samsung Electronics Co., Asia’s biggest maker of memory chips, vowed to pay compensation for employees who’ve said they got cancer after working at the company’s semiconductor plants.

“Some of the employees working at our company are suffering from incurable diseases, including leukemia, and some have passed away,” Kwon Oh Hyun, vice chairman of the Suwon, South Korea-based manufacturer, said in a statement today. “We will make appropriate compensation to those who were affected and their families.”

Some families say dozens of former factory workers were exposed to chemicals causing leukemia and other blood-related cancers across several Samsung plants in South Korea, making them sick. They are also seeking compensation from a government insurance fund.

Samsung said it will help form a third-party panel to mediate the issue and will act in accordance with its findings.

In 2011, Samsung said an investigation conducted by Environ International Corp., commissioned by the manufacturer, found no connection between its chip plants and leukemia.