Comedian Park Na-rae halted activities amid allegations of manager power harassment and illegal medical procedures, and her recent explanation reported in the media has sparked a new controversy. The core issue is Park Na-rae's claim that "there was no wage withholding" and the difference in perception among office workers who find that hard to accept.
Park Na-rae recently spoke in an interview with a media outlet about allegations of workplace harassment toward a manager and wage withholding. She said, "If there had been workplace harassment or a special injury, I would take responsibility whether by paying money, kneeling, or offering a public apology," but drew a line by saying, "That did not happen." She added that she had pointed out shortcomings such as inadequate prop preparation on set, but said she could apologize if that was perceived as harassment.
The problem was her explanation regarding salary payments. Park Na-rae said, "As a one-person agency, I paid the salaries myself," and explained, "If a shoot or a dinner overlapped with payday, I sometimes could not transfer immediately, but when salary discussions came up I calculated monthly and deposited the money the next day." She emphasized that "there was no wage withholding."
However, this explanation did not resonate with office workers. Many reacted that it was already a problem that salaries were not deposited on payday and that the system required employees to first ask, "Is the salary coming in today?" before payment would be made the next day. In fact, a screenshot of a KakaoTalk conversation released by Dispatch showed the manager asking, "Yesterday was payday; will it be in today?" to which Park Na-rae replied, "Yep!!," a moment that fueled the controversy.
Netizens reacted strongly, saying, "Salaries should be automatically deposited on the promised date," "Paying the next day is also withholding," and "Why should people have to ask to receive money owed to them?" In particular, criticism followed that she "doesn't understand the reality of office workers" and that her explanation showed "no understanding of the meaning of payday."
Moreover, her explanation about managers' working hours and employment type failed to gain sympathy. Park Na-rae offered explanations about managers' work patterns and hours, but criticism continued that her perception was out of touch with the reality faced by office workers. In particular, it became known that she had listed her ex-boyfriend as an employee in a private corporation registered in her mother's name and paid him a salary, which highlighted the disparity in treatment between managers who actually worked on site and others. Former managers complained of discriminatory treatment, saying, "We, who were actual workers, weren't even able to sign employment contracts," and Park Na-rae acknowledged that she had an ex-boyfriend on the payroll and that employment contracts were not written. However, she drew a line, saying that this could not be viewed as "power harassment."
There was also a large gap in perceptions about working hours. Responding to criticism of a brutal schedule, Park Na-rae countered that "excluding personal work time and rest time, it's different." For example, she argued that if a manager was assigned personal tasks in the morning on a day with an evening YouTube shoot, allowed to rest in the afternoon, and then worked only during the evening shoot, the actual working hours would be only the filming time.
But the former managers' accounts differed. They said they had to be on standby from morning to prepare for the celebrity's shoot and often could not attend to their own personal matters because they were handling Park Na-rae's personal tasks. In response to Park Na-rae's explanation that seemed to suggest that "standby" and "performing personal tasks" were not work, office workers strongly rejected that view, saying, "Standby is labor too."
Meanwhile, former managers have announced plans to file civil and criminal suits against Park Na-rae alleging power harassment, special injury, surrogate prescriptions, illegal medical procedures, and nonpayment of hosting fees. Park Na-rae's side has countersued the former managers on charges of attempted extortion and embezzlement, and the dispute has escalated into a legal battle.
In the end, Park Na-rae's explanation that she made "next-day deposits" became a decisive blow that, rather than defending her, struck the anger of countless office workers who have waited for paychecks.
[Photo] OSEN DB
[OSEN]