“Disadvantageous hiring practices for private sector work experience when applying for public sector positions violates rights of equality”
NHRC recommended Mayor of Goyang City and Chief Director of Goyang City Facilities Management Corporation to take remedial actions
In January of 2005, a petition was filed by the labor union of Goyang City Facilities Management Corporation stating that “when evaluating an applicant’s career, their work experience as a public official is recognized completely 100% while an applicant’s experience in the private sector is recognized as 60% or 40% or not at all depending on the size of the company. This is discrimination.” In response, NHRC recommended the Mayor and the Chief Director of Goyang City Facilities Management Corporation (Chief Director) to set more reasonable standards for evaluating work experience so that unreasonable discrimination does not continue to happen.
As a result of the investigation done by NHRC,
The Corporation, according to the “Salary Regulation of Goyang City Facilities Management Corporation”, (1) recognizes 100% of one’s career as a public official (2) 60% of one’s career in the private sector at a company with more than 500 employees, (3)40% in the private sector at a company with more than 50 and less than 500 employees, and (4) none in the private sector at a company with less than 50 employees. Also, the Corporation and its labor union reached an agreement to amend the ‘Work History Conversion Ratio’ in their collective bargaining in 2004. Furthermore, NHRC has confirmed that the Mayor of the City is a supervisory body of the Corporation’s operations in conformity with the Ordinance of Establishment and Management of Goyang City Facilities Management Corporation and has the authority to enact and revise the Salary Work History Conversion Ratio Regulation of the Corporation.
The Corporation responded stating (1) disadvantageous recognition of private sector work experience has been adopted by most of the local government corporations given the fact that one’s career is a way to consider specialty, similarity, and consistency in a particular field. But it acknowledged that (2) employees are involved in areas such as planning, general affairs and information technology which they had gained experience in the private sector, and that those with work experience in the private sector are better at what they do now even though areas they are involved in are dissimilar with the work they did in the private sector. Nevertheless, the Corporation stated it cannot change the ratio autonomously without the authorization of the Mayor, acknowledging in part the complaint’s argument.
After analyzing the work of the Corporation, NHRC found that (1) work experience in the private sector has been recognized as 60% and 40% or none at all depending on the size of company even though their work experience is identical or closely related to the job opening. It also identified that (2) the Corporation has accepted the maximum of 60% of work experience in the private sector for applicants even though they set preconditions of relatedness and consistency to the opening when posting a recruitment notice that says “those with more that X amount of years of work experience in X field in a company with less than 50 employees”.
However, the Corporation has hired those in public sector in their office who have “work experience as an X grade public servant or who are X grade for more than X amount of years”. That is, the Corporation has acknowledged 100% of candidates’ careers as public officials regardless of the field they worked in even though related work experience is not a precondition for recruitment.
Therefore, NHRC concluded that whether an applicant has work experience in the private sector or in the public sector cannot be an absolute criteria for evaluating job relatedness and consistency of the work system of the Corporation even though the Corporation is a state enterprise.
Therefore, NHRC decided that the Corporation has violated the rights of equality of those who have worked in the private sector by unfairly disadvantaging them with no grounds in terms of work experience compared to those who have work experience in the public sector. So NHRC recommended (1) the Chief Director to come up with a reasonable conversion ratio standard that the Corporation can accept 100% of work experience both in the public and private sectors when hiring employees experiences, and (2) the Mayor to supervise thoroughly the operation of the Corporation to keep the conversion ratio standard in place.
NHRC hopes its recommendation can be an opportunity for other state enterprises to learn from and prepare a reasonable system to fairly accept every applicant’s work experience.-End-
