But on Wednesday, South Korea’s labour ministry rejected these claims, saying given the content and nature of the management contract signed by Hanni, she is not regarded as a worker under the country’s Labour Standards Act.
“Individuals must meet the criteria under the Labour Standards Act… to be considered workers. This includes having fixed working hours and providing labour under the employer’s direct supervision and control. Celebrities, including singers, are typically classified as independent contractors,” Chunghwan Choi, senior partner of Yulchon law firm in Seoul explained.
The government also cites the nature of Hanni’s income, which is deemed to be “profit sharing, rather than wages”, according to local reports, adding that she pays business income tax rather than employment income tax.
One expert has called the response “utterly unfair and yet unsurprising”.
The work for K-pop idols is “emotionally and physically exhausting”, according to her, as they work “incredibly long hours, often seven days a week for months in a row…[with] no clearly defined periods of rest”, says CedarBough Saeji, Assistant Professor of Korean and East Asian Studies at Pusan National University in South Korea.
“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,” she argues.
There are currently no specific laws in South Korea that provide protections for the working rights of celebrities or artists, says Mr Choi, saying that this “underscores the urgent need for reforms to address longstanding issues in the entertainment industry”.
One measure that could be put into place to safeguard the working rights of artists is something similar to the Talent Agency Act in Hollywood, which requires talent agencies to obtain licenses and prohibits unfair or exploitative contracts, adds Mr Choi.
However, he adds that “while there have been discussions about implementing laws similar to the Talent Agency Act, no such legislation has been enacted yet”.