A group of 39 women working at the Hyundai Motors Inc." s Kwang-ju operation filed a complaint on January 20, 2006. The complaint was based on the fact that it took an average of seven years for male employees to be promoted from the 5th level to the 4th level whereas for women employees it took more than 12 years was sex discrimination. The NHRCK decided that indeed this amounted to discrimination based on sex and recommended the Hyundai Motors Inc. to establish affirmative action policies to eliminate the accumulated consequences of discrimination and to establish a personnel policy equal to both sex.
Upon comparing the staff level of male and female employees that entered the company at the same time, 35 male employees were all promoted so that there were 11 directors(31.4%), 21 deputy managers(60%) and three 4th level staff. However, out of the 43 women employees who entered the company at the same time, there were no directors, only one deputy manager(2.3%), and 20 who were promoted to the 4th level(46.5%). The rest of the 22 women employees(51%) were still at the 5th level even though 10 to 15 years had passed since their entry.
Hyundai Motors Inc. argued that its overall promotion system including the personnel policy and rules of promotion was clear of rules or factors that were discriminatory and it was only that the differences in job duties and the degree of difficulty of the job tasks quality and quantity wise were reflected in the performance evaluation.
However, the NHRCK concluded that even if there was no definite rule that was discriminatory to women, the performance evaluation indicators that did not include job specifications that more closely related to qualities apparent in a woman devalued the labor quality of female employees. Furthermore, the NHRCK found out upon comparing the job duties of male and female employees that Hyundai" s argument about the differences in the workload and degree of difficulty of the job tasks were not true. In the first place, the job placements between male and female employees were based on stereotypes about what amounted to traditionally male and female roles and capabilities. The NHRCK thus concluded that the Hyundai Motors Inc." s argument regarding the extreme statistical imbalance in promotion was unreasonable and recommended that an promotion system equal to both sex be established.
