In a rare moment of emotional candidness for the K-pop industry, NewJeans member Hanni took to the floor of South Korea’s National Assembly on Tuesday (Oct. 15) to address the issue of workplace harassment and bullying. Testifying before the Labour Committee of South Korea’s National Assembly, the 20-year-old spoke about her and NewJeans’ experiences working under ADOR, the group’s sub-label that’s part of HYBE that also houses the labels supporting BTS, SEVENTEEN, LE SSERAFIM and more.
Arriving at the Seoul court midday on Tuesday to a media frenzy of eager reporters and photographers, Hanni, who is Vietnamese-Australian, shared in her testimony that she felt undermined and ignored by her company’s management. Recalling the incident she had previously shared during NewJeans’ guerrilla livestream last month, Hanni described how a manager overseeing another K-pop act had instructed the artists to “ignore” the NewJeans singer.
“We have a floor in our building where we do hair and makeup and, at that time, I was waiting in the hallway because my hair and makeup was done first,” Hanni shared, per the BBC, during the televised parliamentary audit. “I said hello to all of them, and then they came back about five or 10 minutes later. On her way out, [the manager] made eye contact with me, turned to the rest of the group, and said, ‘Ignore her like you didn’t see her.’ I don’t understand why she would say something like that in the work environment.”
Hanni says these incidents were not isolated but part of a broader pattern that left her and her bandmates feeling disrespected. She detailed additional instances where senior HYBE executives failed to acknowledge her.
“Since my debut, we ran into a person in a high-up position many times, but they never greeted me when I greeted them,” she said, sometimes through tears, in her testimony. “I understood from living in Korea that I have to be polite to older people and that’s part of the culture — but I think it’s just disrespectful as a human being to not greet us, regardless of our professional status. There was a certain vibe [of disrespect] that I felt within the company.” Adding that the incidents had her come “to the realization that this wasn’t just a feeling. I was honestly convinced that the company hated us.”
Representing HYBE during the hour-long hearing, current ADOR CEO Ju Young Kim (who replaced NewJeans creator Min Hee-jin as CEO after HYBE’s multiple requests to step down) said she would “listen more closely” to the artists. “I believe I did everything I could,” Kim responded. “But seeing that Hanni felt this way and that the situation escalated to this point, I wonder if there was more I could have done.”
“I was told that because there wasn’t any evidence, there was nothing that could be done,” Hanni explained, per The New York Times. The outlet added that Kim cited her decision based on differing accounts of what happened.
With the K-pop industry infamous for tightly controlled and high-pressure narratives between artists, companies and the media, Hanni’s direct testimony is a unique insight into an artist’s daily experiences beyond the spotlight that can signal hope toward more open conversations about accountability. South Korea’s Environment and Labor Committee of the National Assembly is currently investigating working conditions in the entertainment sector, where labor laws do not cover many performers. During the hearing, An Ho-young, the head of the panel, emphasized the need for lawmakers to safeguard the rights of entertainers.
According to the Korea JooAng Daily, Ju Young Kim, previously in a leadership position in HYBE’s human resources department, expanded on the complexity of handling artists and employees.
“My understanding is that artists are not defined as employees by the law,” she said when asked about anti-harassment regulations for company employees and artists, per Korea JooAng Daily. “We have an internal guidance policy where we explain how constituents, regardless of whether they are employees or not, should respect each other. We are holding regular training programs and using a lot of effort to form our corporate culture.” Kim added that artists cannot use HYBE’s company hotline to report workplace harassment but instead adhere to “an internal guidance policy where we explain how constituents, regardless of whether they are employees or not, should respect each other.”
While NewJeans have actively sided with Min Hee-jin in the executive’s ongoing power struggle with HYBE, Hanni expressed a more universal hope regarding the future of working in K-pop.
“I hope trainees don’t suffer these incidents and that’s why I decided to appear,” Hanni said, according to Reuters. “I know it’s not going to solve all the problems in the world, but if we just respect each other, at least there will be no problems with bullying and harassment in the workplace.”
This article was originally published by Billboard U.S.