The South Korean government on Saturday denied Associated Press (AP) reports on Samsung Electronics Co. that it plans to look into whether there was any “negligence in the government’s handling of sick workers’ inquiries about workplace toxins,” saying that the reports are “far from the truth.”

According to multiple industry sources on Tuesday, the Ministry of Employment and Labor sent out a statement to AP headquarters in New York and its Seoul bureau on Saturday in response to the agency’s Aug. 10 and 12 reports on workers at Samsung Electronics’ semiconductor and display plants with diseases. Under the titles “Samsung workers sickened by chemicals in factories speak up” and “2 words keep sick Samsung workers from data: trade secrets,” the United States-based news agency reported that the government condoned Samsung Electronics to withhold information about exposure to toxins on grounds of business confidentiality.

Samsung Electronics workers at cleanrooms of display and semiconductor plants sicken from diseases like leukemia from constant exposure to chemicals weren’t be able to get rightful compensations because of inaccessibility to the information and data, the report claimed.

In a follow-up story, the news agency cited a labor ministry senior official as saying that it has taken the report seriously and would investigate whether there was any negligence in the government part.

The ministry said that comments have been “randomly distorted by the reporter.”

Following the second AP report on Aug. 12, Samsung Electronics also published additional information on its online newsroom and refuted the reports one by one in details. The tech giant wrote that it has already reached an agreement with relevant parties - civic group Banolim and the family countermeasure committee - to “resolve the concerns about trade secrets through the Ombudsman Committee, an independent third-party body.”

“It is unfortunate that the article is raising both inaccurate and misleading assertions when a plan is already in place to resolve the issue,” Samsung said.

By Lee Seung-hoon

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]