Following an extended back-and-forth this month with an ex-ADOR employee over the handling of her sexual harassment/power harassment case, the latest in the HYBE/ADOR mess is Min Hee Jin is being replaced as CEO of ADOR, with Kim Joo Young taking over and Min Hee Jin remaining as the producer for NewJeans.
On August 27, we held a board meeting and appointed Kim Joo Young, ADOR’s internal director, as the new CEO.
The newly appointed CEO Kim Joo Young, is an HR expert with experience in various industries and will be responsible for stabilizing and reorganizing ADOR’s internal structure.
Former CEO Min Hee Jin has stepped down from the CEO position but will continue to serve as an internal director of ADOR. She will also continue her role in producing NewJeans.
Additionally, ADOR’s internal organization will now separate production and management. This is in line with the multi-label operation principle that has consistently been applied to all other labels, although ADOR had previously been an exception where the CEO oversaw both production and management.
With this personnel and organizational restructuring, ADOR plans to fully support the growth and greater success of NewJeans.
While ADOR describes the event as if Min Hee Jin willingly did this, her side says it was a unilateral decision.
Following the statement from ADOR, a representative of Min Hee Jin stated, “[Min Hee Jin] was suddenly notified on Saturday, [August] 24 that a board meeting would be held on [August] 27 regarding a change in the CEO position, and she attended the meeting via phone call on [August] 27.”
The representative continued, “The decision to dismiss CEO Min Hee Jin was made unilaterally without her consent, which is a clear violation of the shareholder agreement.”
“The company announced that CEO Min Hee Jin would continue producing for NewJeans, but this was not discussed with her and is a unilateral notification from the company,” they added.
Well …. sure sounds like they’re likely to challenge this legally in the same manner that the temporary injunction was before, claiming a violation of the shareholder’s agreement.
So that’s the breaking news.
——
But going back to the sexual harassment/power harassment case, as mentioned there’s been a lot that’s been said, though it doesn’t seem like much has changed.
On August 13, Min Hee Jin wrote a lengthy statement where she includes the content of the sexual harassment complaint and the work harassment complaint. She essentially frames the issue as a highly-paid yet incompetent employee filed frivolous complaints as retaliation for getting her pay cut. She also questions the motives behind all of this appearing now, of course implying HYBE is behind it.
The next day, the employee responded, clarifying the sexual harassment complaint and denying that she was incompetent, claiming she received support from other employees at ADOR. She explained that she reported seven cases of workplace harassment and one case of sexual harassment with evidence, and that it’s ADOR who has the final say as her employer, so relying on HYBE is already neglecting her duty as CEO. She also denied she’s targeting Min Hee Jin, as HYBE apologized and promised to reinvestigate — she has submitted 11 more instances with evidence for the reinvestigation — the executive apologized as well, while Min Hee Jin sent her 77 messages over KakaoTalk insulting her.
The aforementioned apology from the executive to the employee was most important, as it allegedly involved an apology for inappropriate comments and admitted to colluding with Min Hee Jin in the investigation. However, the executive then allegedly retracted their apology, and he claimed it wasn’t retracted because it was being misinterpreted to begin with and hinted at legal action. The employee then responded, denying his claims.
The employee then revealed they’ll be filing a civil and criminal lawsuit against Min Hee Jin for violating the Labor Standards Act as well as the Information Protection Act, and intends to report the executive to the Ministry Of Employment And Labor for mistreatment in the workplace and irrational behavior.
——
Phew.
That’s a lot, and it seems like there will be more to come.
Editor’s Note: Whoever it was in the comments recently that wished for more action so I would have to go back to the reading mines, curse you!
