The members have served a “certificate of content” to the company, Korean media revealed.
In a report by Yonhap News Agency, it disclosed that NewJeans members Danielle, Hanni, Haerin, Minji, and Hyein have sent a document to their home label ADOR.
In the said letter, the five-member team have demanded the agency to meet their demands within 14 days.
Should ADOR fail to meet NewJeans’ conditions, the latter will be terminating their contracts with the former, which has been their parent label since the group’s 2022 debut.
In the file posted by Yonhap, members hope that the management “rectifies all… violations,” with them citing the recent HYBE internal report that stated that the company “had been plagued by New-I-LE… but can throw ‘New’ away and start anew.”
HYBE Corporation is the parent conglomerate of ADOR and also owns subsidiary labels Belift Lab and Source Music, which respectively oversee the girl groups ILLIT and LE SSERAFIM — the two other groups included in the ‘New-I-LE’ trio.
Meanwhile, in response to the reports, ADOR’s management said that they “have nothing to say, given that we have yet to receive the certificate of contents sent by NewJeans’ side.”
This development is the latest in the saga at HYBE, which has been grappling with multiple controversies that can be traced back to the dispute between the conglomerate and former ADOR CEO Min Hee Jin, whose contract was initially terminated in August.
Min was later “reinstated” in ADOR as an “internal director” at the company’s board earlier this month.
Last October, NewJeans member Hanni Pham also shared her experience before a committee at the South Korean National Assembly, which carried out an investigation in the bullying and workplace harassment being experienced in the entertainment industry.
Pham was heard saying that she hopes “… trainees don’t suffer these incidents and that’s why I decided to appear,” before sharing some of her personal encounters such as an instance where she was ignored by members of another group based on the instruction of their manager.
Ador’s new CEO Kim Ju Young, meanwhile, said that she could not immediately corroborate with the story due to differing accounts of what happened and lack of concrete evidence.
However, she also noted that she will be “listening closely” to the grievances of the idols in the company under her current capacity.
NewJeans made their debut in 2022 and became an instant sensation for their hit singles like ‘Attention,’ ‘OMG,’ ‘Hype Boy,’ ‘Ditto,’ and ‘Super Shy.’
In May 2024, they made their comeback with ‘How Sweet,’ which is the title track of its namesake single album.
Last September, the NewJeans member also visited the country for the second time as guest performers at the ‘Ultimate Fandom Concert’ in Pasay City, where they joined forces with Filipino musicians like Alamat, Zack Tabudlo, Kyle Echarri, Nik Makino, and Illest Morena.