"Webtoon Artists Are High-Intensity Workers"…Naver Mandates Mandatory Rest

One Break per 25 Episodes... Same for All Serial Writers
Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism: "Break Rights Also Specified in Standard Contract Draft"

Reference photo from a webtoon fair held at Kintex / Goyang, Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

Naver Webtoon is strengthening the rest rights of its creators. Accordingly, creators who serialize weekly will now be able to take one break for every 25 episodes.

According to the industry on the 10th, Naver Webtoon recently revised its serialization regulations to explicitly state that creators can take one break each time they serialize 25 episodes. This is guaranteed equally to all serializing creators without any separate contract amendments.

Previously, Naver Webtoon granted serializing creators one break per year under the name of "Nth Anniversary Break," which was unrelated to the serialization schedule. Additionally, creators could pause serialization for special reasons such as family events, health issues, or childbirth.

However, with the new system allowing one break per 25 episodes, creators now have more opportunities to rest and recharge during serialization. Creators who serialize once a week can take up to two breaks per year, while those who serialize twice a week can take up to four breaks annually.

Kakao Entertainment, which owns major webtoon platforms such as KakaoPage and Kakao Webtoon, already prepared a contract amendment in December 2022 to reduce excessive burdens on creators. The amendment lowered the minimum number of cuts per webtoon from 60 to 50 and guaranteed two breaks for every 40 episodes.

Improving the treatment of webtoon creators, including rest rights, has been a consistent demand. Although the government established a standard contract for the webtoon sector in 2015, it has been criticized for its gap with industry practices and insufficient specific revenue-sharing clauses, resulting in low practical use.

According to a January 2023 report by the Korea Labor and Occupational Safety and Health Research Institute, the average daily working hours of webtoon creators is 9.9 hours. Although this is slightly reduced from the 10.5 hours reported in 2021, considering that the Labor Standards Act sets the standard working hours at 8 hours per day (excluding overtime and extended work), the labor intensity for webtoon creators remains high.

For this reason, since 2022, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has convened webtoon industry stakeholders to prepare a win-win agreement and discuss rest rights. The ministry announced plans to establish a standard contract that protects creators’ rights, including guaranteeing a minimum 15-day review period from the first contract confirmation, specific revenue sharing, disclosure of webtoon sales information, and creators’ rest rights.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism recently stated that the draft of the newly established and revised standard contract for comics and webtoons includes the clause "mandatory two breaks for every 50 episodes based on serialization schedule," and plans to disclose this through the standard contract and usage guidelines to be prepared in the third quarter.