Labor ministry promotes unemployment insurance for artists at broadcasters' festival

The labor ministry said Tuesday that its workers' compensation agency promoted employment and industrial accident insurance for artists at a festival held by the Korean Broadcasting Actors' Union in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, where about 1,500 members gathered.

The Korea Workers' Compensation and Welfare Service, known as Kcomwel and headed by Park Seung-heup, set up booths at the union's Hanmadang festival at Goyang Stadium's auxiliary pitch to explain how artists can enroll in the programs and what benefits they offer.

Employment insurance for artists is designed to stabilize the livelihoods of people who work on culture and arts service contracts. Those who meet certain conditions can receive job-seeking benefits for up to 270 days if they lose work, and 90 days of maternity and childbirth benefits around the birth of a child. Artists and employers that qualify for the government's Durunuri social insurance premium support can have 80 percent of their premiums covered for up to 36 months, and those who join the industrial accident insurance program for small-business owners can claim medical care benefits for work-related injuries or illnesses and suspension benefits for time taken off to recover.

Awareness of the programs remains thin. In a survey the agency conducted at the same festival in 2024, 78.6 percent of 591 respondents said they knew about employment insurance for artists, but only 21.7 percent said they understood the details. Just 15.9 percent said they were familiar with the small-business industrial accident insurance available to artists.

Kcomwel responded with hands-on programs and one-on-one counseling. Caricature drawing, personal color consultations and promotional robots drew visitors, while mascots named Himangi and Dreami handed out guides. Staff from Kcomwel's Seoul special-occupation center and the Korea Arts Welfare Foundation advised on enrollment, eligibility for benefits, premium support and accident insurance coverage.

The agency also explained the insurance programs for other workers who provide labor without standard employment, such as designated drivers, study-material tutors, after-school instructors and tour guides, and ran a survey on awareness and preferred promotional channels. It plans to post video from the venue on YouTube and other social media for artists who could not attend.

This was the third consecutive year the agency has promoted the programs at the festival.

"We will visit the field to communicate so that artists can accurately understand the benefits of employment and industrial accident insurance and continue their creative work with confidence, and we will work to reduce blind spots in the system," Park said.