CGV slammed over 'untidiness penalty'

Lee Kyung-min

CGV, the nation’s largest cinema complex chain, is under fire over a policy that imposes an “untidiness penalty” on theater employees who fail to maintain “proper appearance” which includes wearing red lipstick in the case of women.

According to Alba Yeondae, a group representing part-time workers, Friday, the company cuts workers’ hourly wages by 100 won ($0.09) if they fail to comply with a guideline on appearance.

Under the guideline, female employees are required to wear shiny red lipstick and maintain the glow on their lips at all times by constantly applying more lip gloss.

Facial makeup is also required to make their skin glow, with light eye shadow also compulsory. Only coffee-colored stockings are allowed, and hair should be tied back in a bun, the guideline states.

For male workers, they face a penalty when their hair is too long and they fail to comb their hair back neatly with styling wax.

One former employee said a manager conducted a daily checkup before work hours to see if their appearances were “pretty enough” to serve the customers.

“We were criticized for our looks. The manager would say, ‘You are not wearing red lipstick, your hairstyle is not in accordance with the company regulation,’” the employee said.

“Those who received criticism could not start working until their appearance met the manager’s evaluation criteria. He threatened to cut our hourly salary by 100 won as well. That amount might seem low, but not to those of us whose hourly wage is 6,030 won.”

According to the Ministry of Labor and Employment, it is subject to 5 million won in fines for discriminating against workers in wages or other welfare based on appearance or other conditions irrelevant to performing their duties, including height, weight and facial features.

Alba Yeondae Director General Yong Yoon-shin said refusing to follow such rules is not an option for many workers as they are easily replaced with those who would follow the rules without complaint.

“Getting a job at a large company is really competitive because they pay on time, unlike small stores,” she said. “Most part-time workers are not in a position to express their opinions. I heard that some of the CGV workers have had to pay out of their own pockets to buy cosmetics as well.”

Park Yun-jin, a counselor at the Women Labor Law Support Center, said that pressure on maintaining “pretty looks” at such an early age might form a distorted gender-stereotyped perception.

“Most of the theater workers are in their early 20s, and they like the job as the work is not too demanding and they get paid on time. However, not voicing concerns against the wrong practice might numb them to the social perception that women should be pretty no matter what,” she said.

CGV officials were unavailable for comment.