NewJeans' Hanni testifies at the National Assembly about workplace harassment
South Korean pop star Hanni from NewJeans has testified at the National Assembly Environment and Labor Committee’s state audit about workplace harassment in the music industry.
On Oct. 15, Hanni revealed that she had overheard another group's manager instructing its members to ignore her. The incident occurred when Hanni was waiting in the hallway of their building.
"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," she added.
Hanni emphasized that this was not an isolated incident, claiming that senior members of HYBE management had also treated them with coldness and disrespect. Despite greeting them, they would often ignore them.
"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," said Hanni. "There was a certain vibe [of disrespect] that I felt within the company."
During the hearing, Hanni also alleged that NewJeans was being unfairly criticized on Blind, an app used by the company for internal communications. She claimed that the PR department had asked a journalist to downplay NewJeans' achievements in an article about their record sales. HYBE has previously denied this.
Because of this, Hanni felt that the company "hated" them.
In the same hearing, ADOR's current CEO Kim Joo-young testified, saying he believed Hanni's story about the other group's manager but had been "unable to find supporting evidence." He claimed the CCTV footage of the incident had already expired before he could request it.
“I believe I did everything I could, 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," Joo-young added. He promised to "listen more closely" to his artists and to "do more" to prevent such incidents from happening again.
'We are all human'
Hanni acknowledged that the bullying she experienced must be related to the ongoing dispute between her parent company and former ADOR CEO Min Hee-jin, noting how the NewJeans members had been unfairly treated by HYBE when they discredited their performance in Japan.
"It couldn't have been unrelated. But they didn't need to bring that issue into the workplace," she said. "I felt I couldn't just sit idly by while such behavior continued to repeat."
Tearfully, Hanni said, "I understand that the contracts for artists and trainees may be different [from that of regular workers], but we are all human." She said she decided to testify as she hopes that trainees "don't suffer these incidents" in the future.
Earlier this year, Hee-jin accused HYBE of sabotaging NewJeans. She was later ousted from the label's CEO position.
Due to the conflict, Min was replaced as ADOR's president in August. Despite that, all NewJeans members demanded that Min should be reinstated as ADOR’s CEO, which happened during a livestream in September.
NewJeans—composed of Minji, Hanni, Danielle, Haerin, and Hyein—was formed in 2022. They are known for their songs Super Shy, OMG, and Supernatural.