The Ministry of Employment and Labor has begun labor supervision of the production site of the KBS drama ‘The Handsome Man’. The drama staff and labor and civic groups held a press conference on the 6th and demanded, “It should be different now, and severely punish broadcasters and production companies that do not even comply with the Labor Standards Act.”
The Broadcasting Staff Branch of the Public Transport Workers’ Union Hope Solidarity Headquarters of the KCTU held an emergency press conference condemning the production company on the same day in front of the People Story Company, a co-producer of the handsome party, in front of the office building in Seogyo-dong, Seoul.
According to the Hope Solidarity Headquarters, the Seoul Western Branch of the Ministry of Labor is conducting labor supervision by visiting the filming site of the Handsome Party on the 4th and 5th. It is reported that the main issue will be whether or not the Labor Standards Act is violated, such as violations of the limits on workers’ performance and overtime hours by the staff.
Previously, People Story Company, the production company of the handsome man, refused to renew the contract to about 10 staff members who requested that they ‘observe working hours according to the Labor Standards Act’ while renewing their contracts with an extension of the filming period at the end of May. The branch condemned the ‘collective dismissal’ of handsome male staff, while petitioning for special labor supervision, stating that the problem of illegal long hours still persists. Handsome Mandang is being co-produced by People Story Company, a production company, and Monster Union and AD406, which are subsidiaries of KBS.
Kang Eun-hee, a lawyer at the Public Interest and Human Rights Law Foundation representing the branch, said, “It is very encouraging that the Ministry of Labor has entered into labor supervision at a drama production site currently being filmed. ” he said.
Ahn Myung-hee, a permanent member of the National Solidarity for the Elimination of Unstable Labor, said, “It has been over 50 years since Martyr Jeon Tae-il left this land shouting ‘abide by the Labor Standards Act’. However, it is even more surprising that this nonsense is something that is not new to the broadcast drama production site. reality,” he said.
He continued, “(The Labor Supervisor) was initiated by the handsome party, but I know very well that it will not be over just because the problem of the handsome party is solved.” “Now it is the government’s turn to step in. It should not be tolerated any longer for a production company like People Story Company to continue filming dramas. Dramas that exploit staff and are made illegally should not be aired.”
After the ‘group dismissal’ incident became public, it was also claimed that a person from the People Story Company made a so-called ‘blacklist’ statement at the production site of the handsome party. Park Hye-ri, director of the Hope Solidarity Headquarters of the Public Transport Workers’ Union, said, “The production company even said that they would create a so-called blacklist for the staff who took the group calm. It is not possible,” he said.
They said, “KBS, which tolerates and promotes this reality, cannot escape its responsibility.” “KBS, Netflix, and Wave did not avoid pointing out ‘The Handsome Party’ for violating the Labor Standards Act, but again decided to reconsider the airing. I ask for it,” he said. On the 22nd of last month, the staff filed a collective complaint against the producers of the Minamdang for non-conclusion of labor contracts, violation of extended working hours restrictions, and non-payment of various allowances.
This labor inspection is the first labor inspection conducted on the drama site in three years since the Ministry of Labor conducted labor inspection on the production sites of 4 KBS dramas in 2019. According to the petition of the Broadcasting Staff Branch from 2018 to 2019, the Ministry of Labor supervised special labor twice, and then issued a supervisory result that acknowledged the worker nature of the ‘drama staff excluding the team leader and director’. However, according to the results of an emergency survey on labor conditions by the Broadcasting Staff Branch in September last year, only 1 in 5 (21.3%) of the drama staff signed a labor contract.
On the 6th, when asked whether he had remarked on the ‘blacklist’, Lee Bo-young, the director of the handsome party of People Story Company, said, “I checked with the producers on site, but there is no PD who said such a statement.” A People Story Company official answered, “Of course not,” to the question of whether there is a plan to make them unable to work by distributing the staff list that has been raised. A KBS official said, “It is not appropriate to reveal a position related to the production company’s labor supervision.”
