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| A group of actors in supporting roles appear in a TV drama. Actors playing leading roles have earn ed international fame and massive wealth thanks to growing overseas demand for Korean dramas, but numerous supporting actors and film crew members still wrestle with poor salaries and working conditions. / Korea Times file |
B-list actors, shooting crew suffer from poor treatment and exploitation
By Park Si-soo
Korean TV drama is making headway in building a global fan base.
"Jewel in the Palace" from the country's second largest broadcaster MBC hit the jackpot in Japan, China and Middle East nations, while "Boys Over Flower," "Dream High" and several others produced by the biggest TV station KBS were recently exported to Mexico, Panama and Latin American countries.
This has led to a steep income increase for A-list actors who normally play leading roles. Yet behind their beaming smile and red-carpet treatment are the notoriously poor salaries and working conditions facing supporting actors and film crew.
In addition, they easily become targets of exploitation by smaller independent drama producers who, on a tight budget, do virtually everything for big broadcasters. Nearly 80 percent of Korean TV dramas are made by independent production companies.
Overdue payment
The latest event offering a glimpse of the grim reality took place on June 19 in Seoul, when a group of actors who worked on the MBC drama "My Sons" stood before journalists to complain about their unpaid salaries.
"The drama went off air in March. But there are still many actors who have not yet been fully paid," said Han Young-soo, president of the Korea Broadcasting Actors Union (KBAU) representing nearly 5,000 actors and comedians. "The unpaid salaries are estimated at 703 million ($607,000)."
Actor Ryu Soo-young who played a leading role in the drama received his payment in advance. But many others who played supporting roles, including actor Kim Yong-gun, and actresses Na Moon-hee and Myung Se-bin, are still waiting for a large portion of their guaranteed payment.
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| Extras wearing military uniforms from hundreds of years ago dozing off at a drama shooting site. / Korea Times file |
This incident took place as the head of To Be Enterprise, an independent producer of the drama, disappeared without paying salaries. His whereabouts are still unaccounted for. Amid the controversy, MBC has committed to pay 90 percent of the overdue payments.
"Nearly half of the budget for the drama was spent to cast a couple of actors playing leading roles," said a KBAU official familiar with the case. "My understanding is that in this spending structure he (the boss) found it difficult to pay others so he fled."
Actor Ryu echoed the view, saying the incident was largely due to "inflated" payments to big name actors and actresses.
"An independent drama producer starts shooting normally on a tight budget given by the broadcaster. A large portion of this is paid to a handful of leading actors," Ryu said in a separate media briefing on the issue. "The producer usually needs extra money to fully compensate others. To that end, the firm sells the drama in various ways, but this is not always successful."
The KBAU said the latest incident raised the cumulative amount of unpaid wages between 2009 and 2013 to 43 billion won.
By broadcaster, MBC takes the biggest portion of 1.78 billion won, followed by KBS with 1.59 billion won and the third largest broadcaster SBS with 920 million won.
Following the incident, KBS has mandated independent drama producers to subscribe to an insurance policy covering salaries up to 500 million won as part of efforts to prevent the recurrence of a similar incident. "This is a policy equally applied by MBC and SBS," said Go Young-tak, head of the KBS drama department.
Exploitation
The film crew is another weak group under the current drama-making system.
Most of them, excluding some in decision-making positions, are placed at the bottom of the shooting site hierarchy so they are required to handle all kinds of tough works. They are exposed to higher risks of physical injury, but are paid the least.
Nevertheless, they have no legal right to unionize themselves to call for improved working conditions since they are hired on temporary contracts.
The annual income of a crew member is estimated at 6.4 million won ($5,500) on average as of 2009, according to the KBAU, the latest data available. It showed 74.2 percent of shooting crews work more than 13 hours a day, while only 1.3 percent work eight hours a day. Only 9.2 percent received overtime payment, the data showed.
"It's truly reprehensible," said Rep. Park Chang-sik of the ruling Saenuri Party, recollecting his experiences as a drama director at MBC and SBS in the 1990s. "Nearly 80 percent of people at the shooting site are temporary hires. Their salary is horribly low and working conditions, generally speaking, couldn't be worse."
The first-term lawmaker cited the "tight budget" as the biggest culprit behind what he described as "cruel" working conditions.
"Broadcasters want to make a drama for the least amount of money," Park said. "With a large portion of the budget set to be paid to a handful of main actors, the only way to solve the problem is increasing the budget."
The lawmaker is pushing to introduce a binding form of working contract for film crews, which guarantees wage and welfare that at least meet the legal minimum.
"The bill, which is in the making, stipulates a minimum wage, time limits for one-time shooting and basic welfare among others," he said. A public hearing regarding the issue was held last month. He will improve the bill based on suggestions during the event to place it before the National Assembly in the near future.
A similar bill was put on the parliamentary table in 2010 by then lawmaker Cho Yoon-sun, who is the incumbent minister of gender equality and family. But it perished with the end of the 18th parliamentary session in May 2012.
