The head of JYP Entertainment Jung Wook on Wednesday confirmed allegations by its former employee that their client the Wonder Girls had not been covered by health insurance since January and their $2,500 citation from the NYC Department of Buildings was, in fact, in default status.<\/p>\n
He also revealed the group had been on student visas when they first arrived in the U.S. last April .<\/p>\n
He said the group had been registered at an undisclosed language institute as students but applied and received O-1 visas upon learning of the possible legal repercussions.<\/p>\n
United States law states that F-1 visa holders are allowed to work part-time \u2014 under 20 hours a week \u2014 while still enrolled in an academic institution.<\/p>\n
An O-1 visa is a type of employment visa under U.S. immigration law that applies to people who are deemed to carry extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts, education, business, or athletics.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe knew it was illegal before we switched the girls to an O-1 visa,\u201d Jung said in a telephone interview with The Korea Herald.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, the girls didn’t start getting to work as soon as they entered the United States, so we didn’t anticipate there would be problems regarding that matter,\u201d he said. \u201cSo at first, our girls entered with a student visa while they were registered at the language institute.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although Jung did not state the exact day and month the group had been given the visas, he said the switch came \u201cimmediately.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jung was asked about the name and location of the institute for confirmation purposes but maintained he did not know specific information on the whereabouts of the academy the group were allegedly attending in order to retain legal sojourn in the United States.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut that’s a minor issue \u2014 an issue our stateside branch handles that I have no knowledge of,\u201d Jung said.<\/p>\n
On the matter of the group’s health insurance, Jung said they had been covered until January, when the group was still registered with the language institute.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou do realize over 50 million Americans don’t carry health insurance and most Korean nationals there don’t as well, right?\u201d he said. \u201cWith that said, up until January they did have health insurance.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was possible because they were legally allowed to apply for health insurance as students but because the girls had been flying back and forth from Korea to the U.S., they stopped attending classes which took them out of coverage once they left the school.\u201d<\/p>\n
So if the group had maintained legal status as O-1 holders, why would they be required to attend the language institute until January?<\/p>\n
\u201cThey needed to continue their linguistic studies,\u201d Jung said.<\/p>\n
\u201cDan was hired to further teach them along with another tutor named Claire.\u201d<\/p>\n
He was referring to Daniel Gauss, the band’s former English tutor who spoke about JYPE’s alleged mistreatment of the girls to The Korea Herald on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Jung said JYPE was under no obligation to provide the members of the group with health insurance because the company \u201cdid not maintain an employer and employee relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n
He refuted claims of medical neglect saying \u201cthere was never a time when they weren’t given medical attention if they needed it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you’re a top class star like the Wonder Girls, your health is our first priority.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jung was also asked about the $2,500 fine the company’s Manhattan office was slapped with.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe title holder of the property prior to its acquisition by JYPE had remodeled the entire structure to be suitable for office use,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
According to the citation administered by the New York City Department of Buildings, it has placed the unresolved case into default status after representatives of JYPE failed to make a court appearance on April 29, 2010.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn’t show up to our court hearing because the contractors who had originally commissioned the construction of it had said they would appear on behalf of us after we filed a complaint to them,\u201d Jung said.<\/p>\n
The JYPE president bluntly responded to allegations from the group’s tutor, Daniel Gauss.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don’t understand why the entire country has to hear about what this guy has to say. He is just a disgruntled ex-employee who quit because he thought we weren’t treating him well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gauss refuted local reports that said that he had been sacked after he demanded a pay raise.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was never fired, I quit because they treated me like garbage,\u201d Gauss told The Korea Herald.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was being paid $20 an hour to teach the group.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gauss said he saved most of the e-mail correspondence between himself and JYPE to prove his claims.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe day before I was supposed to go back to JYPE on May 3, I had a conversation with one of my other private students who told me JYPE probably wasn’t paying me enough money,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt that point I just decided to quit because I didn’t want to go back and negotiate. At that point, I was already set on leaving the job. But I was hesitant because the girls were so nice and I was convinced the girls were not being treated well.\u201d<\/p>\n
After Gauss quit his position as the band’s tutor, he decided to look into a \u201chunch\u201d he had in regards to the \u201cstrange\u201d look of the Manhattan JYPE office.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought the building looked strange because they had an office in the basement and they had people living on the second and third floors,\u201d he said<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course I was surprised when I found out that they had been busted by the city. So I made inquiries and I spoke to somebody from the NYC Department of Buildings and that person confirmed JYPE’s violation.<\/p>\n
Gauss’ allegations against JYPE included charges of illegal housing, lack of health insurance coverage, and the coercion of one of its members to perform a private concert for corporate executives in China.<\/p>\n
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