"Shinhwa Andy's Wife" Lee Eun-joo, contract worker on KBS, 'Winning'..Recognition of employment positions [Star Issue]

*This content was translated by AI.

Announcer Lee Eun-joo, wife of group Shinhwa member Andy, won the case to KBS. The announcer joined the company as a contractor, but was recognized for his open position and received 289.4 million won.

According to JTBC on the 27th, Judge Kim Dong-hyun of the Seoul Southern District Court ruled in favor of some of the plaintiffs in a wage claim lawsuit filed by announcer Lee Eun-joo against KBS on the 24th. The court judged that KBS was obliged to pay the announcer about 289.4 million won in unpaid wages.

Announcer Lee Eun-joo joined KBS's local broadcasting station as a freelance weatherman in 2015 and has been in charge of announcers since the following year, but was excluded from the job after hiring a new announcer in 2019. Announcer Lee Eun-joo filed a lawsuit for worker status confirmation, and the Seoul High Court judged it as an unfair dismissal based on the fact that announcer Lee Eun-joo's contract was renewed for more than two years in 2022. The ruling was confirmed by the Supreme Court, and announcer Lee Eun-joo was reinstated in January 2024.

Announcer Lee Eun-joo later filed a lawsuit with KBS once again, saying, "Pay the wages you could have received if you worked normally during the five-year layoff period." He argued that wages should be calculated based on regular workers (four positions), not contract workers (seven positions).

KBS argued that the seven-level wage standard should be applied, citing that full-time announcers are appointed through strict recruitment screening procedures, while announcer Lee Eun-joo was appointed through relatively brief screening and △ did not perform administrative tasks performed by full-time announcers during her tenure. "It can be said that announcer Lee Eun-joo has been working as a contract worker for more than three years and has undergone capability verification equivalent to the recruitment test," the court said. "After reinstatement, there is no distinction between work and conducting the same program as regular announcers."

In addition, the court judged that treating announcer Lee Eun-joo as a seventh-level was not a reasonable discrimination because the new announcer hired instead of announcer Lee Eun-joo was also hired as a fourth-level announcer.

Following this, announcer Lee Eun-joo won KBS and returned to full-time employment, and was recognized as a four-time official and received a wage of KRW 208.9 million.

Meanwhile, announcer Lee Eun-joo married Shinhwa Andy in 2022.

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*This content was translated by AI.