Samsung is facing new allegations of labor law violations.
Last year Samsung faced accusations of labor law violations involving an incident at Samsung Research America, where an executive allegedly ordered employees with ‘dark skin’ to wait outside in preparation for Vice Chairman at the time Lee Jae-yong’s visit to the United States.
Christopher Buchanan, 58, a former employee, has filed a labor lawsuit against Samsung Electronics America (SEA), according to the Los Angeles County Superior Courts.
The plaintiff is seeking punitive damages and has requested a jury trial, and the court has scheduled a hearing for a jury trial for October 29. The lawsuit alleges nine counts, including violation of the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), intentional infliction of emotional distress, discrimination, failure to pay wages, wrongful termination, and defamation.
Buchanan joined Samsung in 2012 and served as the Director of Business Development overseeing Samsung TV Plus service, FAST (free ad-supported TV), and VOD (video-on-demand) since June 2015.
The complaint alleges that Buchanan experienced workplace harassment for over two years. “Until 2019, when one of the defendants, Takashi Nagano, became her manager, Buchanan received very good work evaluations,” the complaint alleges, “but after the appointment of a new manager, the harassment began and the manager wanted to bring in younger employees.”
The complaint further details that Buchanan was professionally marginalized under the new management, including reassignment of his major duties to younger employees; assigning him game content licensing duties unrelated to his original work; and making him work alone without departmental support.
“In my previous role, I had written a major, large-scale contract win on my evaluation as one of my accomplishments,” the plaintiff said, “but the manager demanded that it be removed because it was the work of another employee.”
According to the complaint, the manager intentionally created difficulties for the plaintiff by continuing to assign projects with little potential to generate revenue, and delaying approvals, to negatively impact his performance.
Despite the challenges, the plaintiff claimed to have closed several significant deals on his assignments.
“As the disruptive behavior became more and more apparent, the manager started to cancel 1:1 meetings, delaying contract-related approvals for no good reason, and speaking in front of other employees as if it were the plaintiff’s fault,” the complaint alleged.
As a result, the plaintiff was given notice of termination in February 2022. The plaintiff, Buchanan, was 57 years old at the time. According to the complaint, he was the oldest employee in the department. In addition to terminating his employment, Samsung also withheld his compensation and placed a ‘no rehire’ clause in his severance documents. “The manager made false statements to justify the unfair termination, and (Samsung) did not even investigate the basis for it,” the plaintiff said, adding, “The termination notice lacked a clear explanation, and when although I asked for answers, I could not understand the whole situation.”
Prior to filing the lawsuit, Buchanan lodged a complaint with the State Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH), citing wrongful termination and discrimination. The DFEH accepted the complaint and granted the plaintiffs the right to sue.
The Korea Daily has asked Samsung Electronics America for comment on the lawsuit, but the company did not immediately respond.
BY YEOL JANG, HOONSIK WOO [jang.yeol@koreadaily.com]
