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| A press conference was held at the National Assembly on Friday to reveal the poor working conditions for staff involved in film festivals. Korea Times file |
By Dong Sun-hwa
The organizers of the just-ended 23rd Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) did not pay overtime and other extra pay totaling 124 million won to its temporary staff, Rep. Lee Yong-deuk and the Youth Community Union, advocates for young workers, claimed Friday.
At a news conference at the National Assembly, the lawmaker from the ruling Democratic Party of Korea and the union estimated that about 149 workers were underpaid.
The union set up a complaints hotline, and 34 workers have lodged complaints.
The former festival staff said, "When I demanded overtime, the organizer told me that we didn't count extra hours because it hurt our free-spirited culture."
Such an explanation is absurd, but the union claimed it was told virtually the same thing by the festival's key official.
"A majority of employees on our regular payroll agreed to skip overtime pay. But we also know the irregulars need extra compensation."
BIFF, one of Asia's three largest film festivals, ended on Oct 13, with 324 films shown to about 195,000 people.
Its staff members are 28 years old on average and face the constant risk of unemployment because of the nature of their job. Of the 34 members who contacted the union, 32 worked an average of 4.4 months per job, which disqualified them from jobless benefits.
"Even when we are working for a film festival, we need to find other jobs at the same time to minimize the interval between jobs," the union quoted a staff member as saying.
Rep Lee, union representatives and other advocates called for "special labor supervision" to eradicate back wages, expand the contract period to eight months and set guidelines for local governments and film festivals.
Rep. Lee vowed to take BIFF's failure to pay overtime to the regional labor office.
