GEOJE — Samsung Heavy Industries (010140) will hire about 50 new production workers a year starting next year, with 20 of those slots reserved for local talent from Geoje. Staffing at the company's research and development center in Busan — the flashpoint of a dispute over design jobs moving out of the city — will be capped at 10% of its Geoje design workforce.
Samsung Heavy Industries and the Geoje city government held a meeting at city hall on the 29th to discuss expanded local hiring and cooperation. Geoje Mayor Byun Kwang-yong, Samsung Heavy shipyard head Nam Gung Geum-seong and human resources support office head Lee Seong-rak attended. The meeting followed demands the mayor made at a press conference on the 2nd of this month, calling for a review of plans to expand design staff in Busan and for more local hiring.
"Samsung Heavy Industries has been an important partner in driving Geoje's shipbuilding industry and the local economy together," Byun said. "We hope the company will expand local hiring so that talented people from the region can settle in Geoje."
Samsung Heavy said it hires about 400 Korean nationals each year and places 80% to 90% of them at its Geoje complex.
"About 2,000 employees are set to reach retirement age within the next 10 years, so we expect new hiring on a comparable scale," the company said. "New hiring for production positions will also be expanded to about 50 a year." Citing a precedent in which it recruited up to 50 graduates a year from Geoje Technical High School, the company said it plans to hire 20 people from the region annually starting next year.
On the Busan design center dispute, Samsung Heavy said staff there handle only offshore plant design and that the number would not exceed 10% of the Geoje design workforce going forward. The company spent 4.8 billion won to open the R&D center in the Munhyeon financial district of Busan's Nam-gu in 2023 and currently employs about 170 people there. About 1,100 work in Geoje. As orders for floating liquefied natural gas production facilities, or FLNG, increased and offshore design staff ran short, the company signed a memorandum of understanding with the Busan city government to add 130 more workers by 2030. At the press conference, Byun said it was "plain to see that Geoje will be reduced to a mere production base" and demanded the plan be scrapped.
Byun also raised the idea of having the city's two major shipyards jointly support the operation of a cardiovascular center. "When cardiovascular or cerebrovascular disease strikes in Geoje, patients have to be transferred to other areas such as Busan, Jinju or Changwon, which makes it difficult to secure the golden hour," he said. Samsung Heavy said it agreed such a center was needed and would look positively at ways to cooperate.
The transfer of ownership of a welfare dormitory for in-house subcontractors in Jangpyeong-dong was also on the table. Byun asked companies to take a more forward-looking stance, saying, "Let us pool our efforts to build a structure in which businesses and the region grow together."
