News
WEBTOON Subsidiary Studio LICO Joins Naver Labor Dispute After Breakdown in Wage Talks
posted on by Wonhee Cho
Naver, the parent company of WEBTOON Entertainment, is facing mounting labor unrest after wage negotiations with six of its subsidiaries collapsed on August 12. The dispute has now drawn in Studio LICO, a WEBTOON-owned production house best known for producing the webtoon/web novel Marry My Husband and the Mythic Item Obtained: Idle RPG game.
According to the Naver labor union, the breakdown was declared at a rally outside Naver headquarters in Korea on August 11. Around 600 union members representing the six subsidiaries participated.
The subsidiaries involved include Green Web Service, Studio LICO, NIT Service, NTS, Incomz, and Compartner. While Studio LICO signed a collective agreement last year, this year's talks stalled over compensation and benefits. The union argues that although these subsidiaries perform “core functions” for Naver, they are structurally separated into subcontracting entities — resulting in lower pay and fewer benefits compared to direct Naver employees.
The labor demands vary by subsidiary. Studio LICO specifically called for its “global incentives” to be counted toward base salary and for salary increases in line with its parent, WEBTOON Entertainment.
The dispute comes after Naver and WEBTOON recently revised their own wage agreements, phasing out a longstanding stock grant program worth approximately US$7,500 annually in favor of incorporating 80% of that value into base pay. Subsidiaries currently receive smaller percentages of this incentive system — Studio LICO at 60%.
The webtoon Marry My Husband, which Studio LICO draws and which was adapted into a live-action series in both Korea and Japan, is available on WEBTOON.
The English version of the Mythic Item Obtained webtoon is available on WEBTOON. Hess has been drawing the series.
Source: News 1 (Eun-bin Shin)
