Isn’t a company that sets a male-to-female hiring ratio of ‘4 to 1’ a violation of the law? [슬직생]

Fine of 5 million won in accordance with employment gender discrimination punishment regulations
The effectiveness of the system to correct gender discrimination in employment is minimal.

#Mr. A, who works in the human resources department of a mid-sized domestic home appliance company, heard a strange story from his team leader ahead of the final selection of new employees. The explanation was that according to the president’s instructions, the hiring gender ratio was set at ‘4 to 1’. The team leader elaborated that the plan was to hire a total of 20 new employees in departments such as management support, sales, and marketing, including the human resources team, but decided to select 16 men and only 4 women. Mr. A wondered whether it would be illegal to set a gender ratio in a situation where recruitment had not been completed.

The Act on Equal Employment Opportunity for Men and Women and Support for Work-Family Balance (Equal Employment Act for Men and Women) stipulates that it is discrimination if hiring or working conditions are different because of the worker’s gender. However, cases where a specific gender is unavoidably required given the nature of the job have been excluded.

In the case of the company Mr. A works for, if it cannot prove that a specific gender is inevitably required for the job, it will be in violation of the Equal Employment Opportunity Act. The company may be subject to a fine of up to 5 million won.

If an employee is aware of such discrimination or has suffered damage, he or she can use the gender discrimination correction system in employment. This system allows workers who have suffered gender discrimination in relation to recruitment, hiring, promotion, or dismissal to receive relief by reporting it to the Labor Relations Commission. However, the effectiveness of the system is still minimal. According to Workplace Gapjil 119, out of 91 applications for discrimination correction filed with the Labor Relations Commission from May 19, 2022, when the gender discrimination correction system in employment was implemented, to March this year, correction orders were issued in only 21 cases (23.1%). Hit it.

In the past, it was common in the financial sector to set the ratio of male and female successful applicants in advance, as Mr. A’s company did. Gender-discriminatory hiring practices in the financial sector were widely revealed through an investigation by the Financial Supervisory Service in 2018, and not only corporations but also CEOs were put on trial.

In a trial that lasted until 2022, the Supreme Court found the corporation and its personnel managers guilty. At that time, Hana Bank internally set the male to female hiring ratio at 4:1, similar to Mr. A’s company, during the process of recruiting new employees from 2013 to 2016. The initial ratio of male to female applicants was almost the same at 1.3:1, but as the selection process progressed, the gender ratio gap widened, and only female applicants had a significantly higher passing score in the document screening process. The court found Hana Bank Corporation guilty, saying, “Artificially setting the gender ratio even though there is no reasonable reason to believe that more men are needed as standard for general bank employees is clear discrimination based on traditional stereotypes.”

Regarding this precedent, Shin Soo-jeong, a researcher at the Law Research Institute of Ewha Womans University, said, “The financial sector’s practice of gender discrimination in employment has been clearly revealed, but no change is still felt.” He added, “The penalty provision for the prohibition of gender discrimination in employment under the Equal Employment Opportunity Act is a fine of 5 million won. “Because it’s just that,” he said. Researcher Shin emphasized that strengthening punishment is necessary and that “gender discrimination that occurs during the recruitment and hiring process can threaten labor opportunities and livelihoods, causing significant damage and violation of rights.”

Reporter Lee Ji-min [email protected]

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