South Korea’s Ministry of Employment and Labor closed its investigation on a complaint about the workplace harassment of K-pop girl group NewJeans member Hanni, saying she is not classified as an employee under the law. 

During a YouTube broadcast by NewJeans on Sept. 11, Hanni (real name Phạm Ngọc Hân), the Vietnamese-Australian member of the group said that a manager of a K-pop group under HYBE told them to ignore her at the company’s headquarters in Seoul. 

Following the broadcast, a fan filed a complaint and urged the ministry to investigate the act committed against Hanni. 

NewJeans' Hanni (Instagram)

In its decision, the ministry’s Seoul office said Hanni is not classified as an employee, thus ineligible for protection under the Labor Standards Act. 

“We closed the case because it is difficult to deem [Hanni] an employee defined by the Labor Standards Act,” the labor office said, the Korea JoongAng Daily reported. 

Korea’s law defines an employee as a ”a person, regardless of the kind of occupation, who offers labor to business or a workplace for the purpose of earning wages.” 

Under Article 76-2 of the same law on Prohibition against Workplace Harassment, it is stated that “no employer or employee shall cause physical or mental suffering to other employees or deteriorate the work environment beyond the appropriate scope of work by taking advantage of superiority in rank, relationship, etc. in the workplace (hereinafter referred to as ‘workplace harassment").

The labor ministry cited that the contract between Hanni and ADOR, an agency under HYBE, is an agreement between “equal contracting parties.” 

The labor ministry, according to the news report, said Hanni did not meet the criteria to be classified as an employee. 

The reasons were that Hanni was not subject to the same rules as company employees, she shared activity-related expenses with the company, she got a share of profits rather than wages, she paid her taxes as a business income instead of salary, and she assumed profits and losses from her activities, the news report added.