[2022 National Audit] 2.5 Billion KRW in Unpaid Wages to Artists Over the Past 5 Years
Among 969 Cases of Unfair Practices, 71.4%... Frequent in Theater
Coercion of Unfair Contracts and Obstruction of Artistic Creation Activities Persist
Over the past five years, the amount of unpaid wages reported to the 'Artist Complaint Center' has exceeded 2.5 billion KRW.
According to data from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Artist Welfare Foundation, disclosed on the 4th by Lim Jong-seong, a member of the National Assembly's Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee (Democratic Party), there were 969 cases of unfair practices reported to the Artist Complaint Center from 2018 to the end of August this year. Among these, wage arrears accounted for 692 cases (71.4%), with related unpaid amounts totaling 2.587 billion KRW.
The most frequent field was theater (397 cases). Entertainment had 128 cases, music 54 cases, fine arts 44 cases, literature 18 cases, comics 18 cases, gugak (traditional Korean music) 8 cases, dance 6 cases, and photography 3 cases, following in order.
The second most common unfair practice after wage arrears was forced unfair contracts (142 cases, 14.6%), followed by obstruction of artistic creation activities (111 cases, 11.5%), and improper use of information (24 cases, 2.5%).
Among the unfair practices, 931 cases have been closed. Only 38 cases are still under fact-finding investigation. Of the closed cases, the Korea Artist Welfare Foundation supported 471 cases. There were 200 cases of compliance before the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism's corrective recommendation, and 15 cases of mediation settlements. The Ministry issued corrective orders in seven cases.
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Assemblyman Lim emphasized, "Many cultural artists still suffer from unfair practices in blind spots of the system," and urged, "The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism must establish more thorough measures to eradicate unfair practices and provide relief to victims."
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