On October 15, NewJeans member Hanni attended the National Assembly’s Environment and Labor Committee audit held at Yeouido, Seoul, as a witness and answered lawmakers’ questions.
However, her voice regarding workplace harassment was dismissed, on terms that K-pop idols are not considered regular workers under their agencies.
“Exploitation of the workers is accepted because they are not regular employees and there is no labour union, or clearly we can now see, no governmental agency to advocate for humane working conditions for them,” this is what CedarBough Saeji, an Assistant Professor at Pusan National University in South Korea, said in an article titled “Are K-pop stars workers? South Korea says no”, published by the media outlet BBC on October 20.
At the time, the BBC reported on a case where the Ministry of Employment and Labor dismissed a complaint regarding workplace harassment testified by NewJeans member Hanni during the National Assembly’s audit, stating that idols do not fall under the category of workers defined by the Labor Standards Act.
The article quoted Professor CedarBough Saeji’s remark, stating that such a response is “utterly unfair and yet unsurprising,” before pointing out that the Korean entertainment industry is known for its strict standards on appearance and behavior and its high-pressure environment.”
The question of whether idols qualify as workers has been a long-standing controversy. Currently, they are legally classified as “special-type workers,” a category that includes individuals like insurance agents, rideshare drivers, private tutors, and freelance writers. They belong to an organization and receive income, but they are categorized as self-employed contractors.
As a result, their labor rights are not fully recognized. The broader issue of special-type workers, which is estimated to affect over 2 million people in South Korea, has been an enduring challenge for the labor sector.
If the issue proves too complicated to resolve within the framework of labor laws, some argue that idols’ rights should be guaranteed through revisions to the Popular Culture and Arts Industry Development Act, which falls under the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism.
On November 21, Representative Woo Jae-joon of the People Power Party introduced a bill that prohibits acts that exploit hierarchical relationships to cause physical or mental suffering or worsen working conditions for workers in the cultural and arts sector. In 2022, the National Human Rights Commission of Korea also recommended systemic improvements to protect children and teenagers in the entertainment industry.
Hopefully, the words of NewJeans’ member Minji at the girl group’s emergency press conference held on November 28, which hopes for an environment where everyone, whether at school or in the workplace, can work with mutual respect and without harassment, will come true.
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