By Jun Ji-hye
Chinese battery makers have attempted to take advantage of the ongoing legal disputes between LG Chem and SK Innovation to steal professional manpower, according to a report issued by the Korea International Trade Association (KITA), Tuesday.
The report said China's semiconductor and aviation companies have also been active in poaching employees from Korean firms in line with a Chinese government policy pushed since 2015 to advance its domestic industries.
Under the policy, Chinese companies have aggressively moved to attract global talent, especially those in Korea, by offering excellent remuneration packages.
China's leading electric vehicle (EV) battery maker CATL offered salaries three to four times those paid in Korea to recruit talented engineers in July, while another battery maker BYD sought to attract employees with special benefits that included cars and housing in addition to the higher salary.
“Korean employees have become a target for Chinese battery makers that have focused on securing talented individuals to make inroads into global markets,” the report said. “In particular, Chinese companies have attempted to take advantage of confusion within LG Chem and SK Innovation to recruit talented individuals.”
The legal battles between the two Korean battery makers began after LG Chem filed a pair of lawsuits with the U.S. International Trade Commission and a U.S. court against SK Innovation at the end of April for allegedly stealing confidential business information through employee poaching.
In response, SK Innovation filed patent infringement lawsuits against LG Chem in the United States, Sept. 3, seeking to ban the sale of LG's EV batteries there.
Since then, the two companies have filed additional lawsuits against each other, deepening their conflict.
In the semiconductor industry, Chinese chip maker Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit sought to poach employees from Samsung Electronics and SK hynix in April by saying it would give preferential treatment to people who had worked for the two Korean chip makers for more than 10 years.
Last year, Samsung Electronics applied for an injunction to prohibit a former executive in charge of designing DRAMs from moving to a Chinese company, according to the report.
The report noted that some Chinese companies have recruited talented Koreans through subsidiaries to avoid lawsuits, adding this practice has made it more difficult to gather statistics on those moving to the firms.
In the aviation industry, 460 Korean pilots have moved to foreign airlines since 2014. Of them, at least 367, or 80 percent, are believed to be now working for Chinese airlines, according to the report.
“The outflow of high-quality human resources in the battery and semiconductor industries will weaken the nation's technological competitiveness; while the outflow of aviation personnel could have an effect on safety,” the report said.
It concluded that there was a need to establish a long-term strategy to prevent the outflow of human resources and to attract talented workers.