By Jung Hae-myoung
A recent ruling to punish the former head of a public company for gender discrimination in hiring practices is drawing attention over whether it will affect similar cases in the financial sector.
The Supreme Court said on Sunday it upheld a lower court ruling that sentenced Park Gi-dong, former CEO of the Korea Gas Safety Corp., to four years in prison and 3 billion won ($266,998) in fines for discriminating against women in recruitment.
During recruitment in January 2015 and May 2016, Park ordered the company's human resource officials to fabricate interview scores to select men over women. Park did so because he felt that "female employees would cause setbacks in work progress by taking maternity leave."
His order caused seven female applicants, whose scores were high enough to be hired, to be disqualified, while 13 men landed jobs despite having scores that disqualified them.
"Park caused irregularities in employment procedures by manipulating the interview scores, which greatly degraded trust in public enterprises," the court said.
Park's case is likely to affect similar ongoing cases in the financial sector. After a 2017 inspection by the Financial Supervisory Service, 38 officials from six commercial banks, including four former and incumbent bank heads, were put on trial for gender discrimination in hiring practices.
Four former and incumbent officials at KB Kookmin Bank recently received suspended jail terms for violating the equal employment law, as they fabricated documents to give high scores to 113 male applicants and low scores to 112 female ones, to hire a larger ratio of men.
During the 2017 recruitment process at Shinhan Card, the company set a goal for the gender ratio of men and women to 7:3 and fabricated interview scores according to the goal, although the ratio of male and female applicants was 59:41.
KEB Hana Bank also fixed a ratio of men and women at 4:1. Most of the female applicants were disqualified after the company set up much higher prerequisites for them.
A recent ruling to punish the former head of a public company for gender discrimination in hiring practices is drawing attention over whether it will affect similar cases in the financial sector.
The Supreme Court said on Sunday it upheld a lower court ruling that sentenced Park Gi-dong, former CEO of the Korea Gas Safety Corp., to four years in prison and 3 billion won ($266,998) in fines for discriminating against women in recruitment.
During recruitment in January 2015 and May 2016, Park ordered the company's human resource officials to fabricate interview scores to select men over women. Park did so because he felt that "female employees would cause setbacks in work progress by taking maternity leave."
His order caused seven female applicants, whose scores were high enough to be hired, to be disqualified, while 13 men landed jobs despite having scores that disqualified them.
"Park caused irregularities in employment procedures by manipulating the interview scores, which greatly degraded trust in public enterprises," the court said.
Park's case is likely to affect similar ongoing cases in the financial sector. After a 2017 inspection by the Financial Supervisory Service, 38 officials from six commercial banks, including four former and incumbent bank heads, were put on trial for gender discrimination in hiring practices.
Four former and incumbent officials at KB Kookmin Bank recently received suspended jail terms for violating the equal employment law, as they fabricated documents to give high scores to 113 male applicants and low scores to 112 female ones, to hire a larger ratio of men.
During the 2017 recruitment process at Shinhan Card, the company set a goal for the gender ratio of men and women to 7:3 and fabricated interview scores according to the goal, although the ratio of male and female applicants was 59:41.
KEB Hana Bank also fixed a ratio of men and women at 4:1. Most of the female applicants were disqualified after the company set up much higher prerequisites for them.
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