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Assignment of different staff grades to employees with different educational background from same recruitment process is discrimination
- Recommendation to Improve Recruitment Procedures for High School Graduates To the President of the Foundation ○○○○
□ On September 9, 2024, the National Human Rights Commission (hereinafter ‘NHRCK’) recommended that the Chairperson of the ○○○○ Foundation (hereinafter referred to as the 'Respondent') take measures to ensure that employees newly hired through the same recruitment process are not granted different job ranks based on their educational background, and that the relevant systems be improved so that when hiring high school graduates, the responsibilities and desired capabilities of high school graduates' duties are specified and disclosed in advance and the recruitment process is based on them.
□ In 2023, the complainant applied for the respondent's recruitment of full-time entry-level employees and passed the document screening, written test, and interview process, but the respondent gave the complainant, a high school graduate, a lower position than a college graduate and treated him/her unfavorably in wages and promotions. Then the complainant claimed that it was discriminatory without reasonable cause.
□ In response, the respondent argued that it was not discriminatory because high school graduates were given two extra points in the document screening, and the job vacancy announcement stated that there were two job grades with different pay ranges while the the criteria for classifying positions were not provided in the announcement, and the successful applicants who were informed of the positions after passing the exam accepted them and decided to join the company. In addition, high school graduates who are assigned lower positions are required to perform high school-qualified duties and are automatically promoted to a higher position if they work for four years in that position, and there is no discrimination favoring college graduates.
□ The NHRCK’s Committee on Discrimination Remedy (Subcommittee Chair: Standing Commissioner Nam Kyu-sun) stated that the respondent set separate high school qualification duties and selected high school graduates, but the evaluation elements were organized without distinguishing between high school graduates and college graduates, and the written test, interview test, etc. were the same, and there was no explanation of the difference in job titles and wages based on educational background at the time of the announcement, In view of the fact that a job hierarchy is a system that divides the job value or ability of employees into different levels and establishes their positions in an organization, and that employees with similar job abilities can be considered as a group of similar job abilities by passing the same recruitment examination with the same procedures and evaluation factors, the NHRCK concluded that the respondents' act of discriminating against the successful applicants by assigning them different job ranks based solely on their educational background and treating them unfavorably in terms of wages and promotions constituted discrimination in violation of their equal rights.
□ Accordingly, the NHRCK recommended that the respondent stop treating employees unfavorably based on their educational level and establish and implement a fair recruitment system to hire high school graduates.
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