Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
TS Entertainment has been accused by former and current staff members of being late on payments to employees for months, forcing them to take out loans to survive. Perhaps more importantly, they’ve been accused of violating labor law.
Employee A has stated that they received their pay from their work in December only in early February and their pay from January has been delayed once again. Employee A had reached out to the finance department multiple times but did not receive a response. Employee B stated that their payments have been delayed since the first month and they are still waiting for their pay from January. Under the law, wages must be paid within 14 days, but because some have not been able to make it through their daily living they have been forced to reach out to the labour office.
Employees of TS Entertainment have not been able to receive their wages on time, and had to take out loans. In addition, there have been instances where employees have to pay for company expenses out of their own pockets. One manager said that the company had been making employees pay for parking tickets, and would compensate them but compensations have not gone through because of the delay in pay.
So TSE is allegedly making managers pay for company expenses in addition to not getting paid on time, but the hours they’re working without compensation is also an issue.
Manager A has stated that he once worked a 20 hour shift and 6 days straight, stating he felt like he was shot. He also stated that he has only earned 1.3 million won (roughly US $1100). Some of the managers plan to file a complaint to the Labour Office in regards to TS Entertainment violating laws against minimum wage.
TSE has said basically that they can’t pay cause they’re broke, and that “confusion” was leading to the ridiculous hours and working conditions.
The company has stated that the financial state of the company since last year has not been good and has declined, and because of this they have been forced to delay pay. The vice president of TS stated that since last December the sales of the company have been poor which is why they have not been able to pay their employees. In addition, there have also been some confusions in regards to the working hours and breaks entitled to managers for idols, and TS Entertainment said they will resolve these issues by the end of March.
Given that it’s TSE, this shouldn’t really come as a surprise, but it’s terrible regardless. The worst part to me is that apparently the staff are being forced to work like the idols do except without basically any of the upside.
At this point, not only do TSE have to pray BAP‘s comeback works, so do the employees and SECRET and SONAMOO.
