You probably remember the sad news about a Netmarble employee who was, essentially, worked straight to death. That’s the bad news. The good news is that when something like that happens, it’s hard to really keep that under the rug for very long. The South Korean Justice Department and the Ministry of Employment and Labor are having discussions about Netmarble in particular and hiding the costs and demands of overtime work in general, which will hopefully lead to some positive changes in the long run.
In the short term, Netmarble is under pressure to settle delayed payments for overtime work as well as address duplicitous hiring practices “tricking” employees into working longer hours while waiving some overtime rights. It remains to be seen what the long-term impact will be on Netmarble’s bottom line, but hopefully this marks an ending to the sort of culture that made a young programmer die.
