NewJeans Member Hanni’s Bullying Case Dismissed By Korean Employment Ministry: ‘Difficult to Regard Her as a Worker’

The Seoul Regional Office of Employment and Labor announced on Wednesday (Nov. 20) that it has closed its investigation into a case alleging harassment against NewJeans member HANNI after determining that the singer cannot be considered an employee under the law.

According to a statement from the Labor office, “It is difficult to consider HANNI a worker under the Labor Standards Act, so the case was administratively closed.” HANNI, 20, (born Phạm Ngọc Hân), made her debut as a member of the first girl group signed to the HYBE label ADOR in 2022; ADOR is a sub-label of HYBE, whose other labels support such acts as BTS, SEVENTEEN and Le SSERAFIM, among others.

After the Vietnamese-Australian singer claimed during a YouTube livestream in September that a manager of another K-pop group under the HYBE umbrella (ILLIT) instructed their artists to “ignore” her inside the HYBE HQ in Seoul, HANNI’s fans filed a complaint with the Ministry of Employment and Labor as well as one with a civil rights organization.

HANNI gave tearful testimony about the alleged incident last month, telling the National Assembly’s Environment and Labor Committee, “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… 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.”

In a stunning moment during that testimony, HANNI said the various alleged incidents of disrespect made her realize that, “this wasn’t just a feeling. I was honestly convinced that the company hated us.”

She added that these were not isolated incidents and that she often felt undermined and ignored by her company’s management team, which left her and her bandmates feeling disrespected. “We are all human. I think a lot of people are forgetting that,” she said during her testimony. “I understand that the contracts for artists and trainees may be different [from that of regular workers], but we are all human.”

The statement from the Labor office dismissing the investigation continued, “Given the content and nature of the management contract HANNI signed, it is difficult to regard her as a worker under the Labor Standards Act, which involves working in a subordinate relationship for wages.” The reasoning for the ruling noted that the relationship between HANNI and ADOR was one in which, “each party fulfills their contractual obligations as equal contracting parties, making it difficult to consider there was supervision or direction from the company.”

In addition, the ruling noted that, “Company rules, regulations, and systems that apply to regular employees were not applied to her (as an artist)… both the company and HANNI shared the costs necessary for entertainment activities. Both parties bear their own taxes, and she pays business income tax, not employment income tax,” and “HANNI bears the risks associated with generating profits and potential losses from entertainment activities.”