“Gentle Monster” And “Tamburins” Accused Of Mistreating Workers

Testimonies have emerged alleging that designers working at IICOMBINED, a global company that operates brands such as Gentle Monster and Tamburins, are subjected to excessive working hours exceeding 70 hours per week and extremely high labor intensity. Workers stated that although they were unable to receive compensatory leave or overtime pay due to the discretionary work system, in reality they had no discretion over their working hours or tools, making the system far removed from its intended meaning of “discretion.”

Maeil Labor News conducted phone and in-person interviews last month with four current and former designers who worked at IICOMBINED for at least one year.

The interviewees unanimously stated that, despite the company’s creative output, IICOMBINED’s corporate culture is rigid and demands excessive personal sacrifice. Under such conditions, long working hours were effectively unavoidable. A designer recalled a period of two months during which she worked overtime every single day except for just two days.

“I frequently went to get IV drips, and there were so many days when I was sick. The company placed an unbearable level of responsibility and workload on individuals. There was always anxiety about whether the work would even get done because there was so much to do and so little time. I even worked while taking anti-anxiety medication.”

While the intensity varied by department and team, she said it was common to far exceed the 47.5 weekly working hours stated in employment contracts.

“There was a time when six of us stayed up for two weeks straight creating hundreds of designs, only for the CEO to return from an overseas business trip and order a complete overhaul. Even after working like that, there was absolutely no culture of compensation, and no atmosphere where you could even ask for compensatory leave.”

To verify working conditions, this outlet reviewed the work log of a designer from June to September last year. In June, although he worked only 18.5 days due to annual leave usage, he averaged 11.5 hours per day. In July, he worked 20 days with an average of 12.45 hours per day. In August, he worked continuously for 18 days without a single day off. In September, ahead of a new product launch, there was even a day when he worked 26 consecutive hours. During the second and third weeks of September, his weekly working hours reached 76 and 73 hours respectively, far exceeding the 47.5 hours stated in his contract. He ended up being clinically diagnosed with anxiety and depression.

IICOMBINED responded, denying the claims.

“We provided instructions that are generally permissible under labor ministry guidelines. Claims that workloads were excessive or that no compensation was provided for overtime are false. We did not issue instructions that undermined employee discretion.”

The designers interviewed strongly refuted the company’s explanation, stating that workloads were consistently too heavy for workers to exercise any real discretion and that the issue was not a one-week period of short-term overwork, but chronic overwork lasting several months. Testimonies also indicated that compensation systems for overtime effectively did not exist.