Their employment contract contains some questionable clauses.
It was recently confirmed that employees of MOVES they must sign a confidentiality agreement before leaving the company. While this is common practice, one clause in the contract has drawn criticism from the public. Employees must sign a “non-compete” clause, which bars them from working at a competing company for a year. This prevents employees who resign from HYBE from working in the same industry. Furthermore, they cannot set up and manage a competing company.
This was instilled by the current CEO of I LOVE IT, Ju Young Kimwho previously headed HYBE’s Human Resources department. Critics have pointed out that because non-executive level employees see no benefit from working at competing companies, this contractual clause has virtually no legal implications. However, it violates individual freedom of choice as many would not know that it does not legally affect them.
Critics call out HYBE for this contract, as employees will feel pressured not to take a job in the same industry, limiting their career choices. This will also influence resignation decisions. An industry official stated that “HYBE itself is a company that grew by stealing talent from other entertainment agencies” but prevents its employees from turning to other companies, denouncing hypocrisy. An employment lawyer stated that “being a de facto piece of paper with no legal effect, it simply seems like a way to repress workers, unreasonably violating people’s fundamental rights to choose a job. Internal legal experts reportedly told the company it was ineffective, but implementing it is a way to pressure employees not to leave the company.”
Furthermore, the contract contains a clause according to which resigned employees cannot file any lawsuit against HYBE for problems that occurred during their tenure. This means that if they were to be injured or harmed physically or emotionally during their employment, they cannot sue the company.
