By Kim Rahn
The Ministry of Employment and Labor said Tuesday that it will enforce existing regulations against gender discrimination in the workplace.
It will mandate that employers should not ask female jobseekers if they will continue working after marriage; specifically aiming at large conglomerates and franchise businesses to prevent gender discrimination against women and sexual harassment.
The move follows continuous complaints from applicants that interviewers ask them about things irrelevant to their job qualifications, including particulars about their physical condition such as weight and height, plans for marriage and childbirth or childcare ― although asking such questions or discriminating against women because of gender issues in recruitment is illegal.
“Compared to the past, the number of cases is decreasing where recruitment notices directly demand specific gender or specific physical conditions or ask about marital status,” a ministry official said. “But there still are many cases where interviewers ask applicants about their marriage plans or select only applicants with specific physical conditions for short-term or part-time positions.”
According to the ministry, gender discrimination in recruitment includes: excluding women; recruiting only women; employing men and women for different positions; and hiring different numbers of men and women.
Examples of such discriminatory job notices are: “We hire pretty part-timers,” “Wanted: women over 165 centimeters in height and under 50 kilograms in weight,” “Wanted: female secretary,” “Wanted: male researchers,” “Only those who completed military duty need apply,” “We’re hiring 10 men for management positions, 10 women for sales positions,” and “Men will be hired as regular workers and women as non-regular workers.”
It is also discrimination against females to recruit only single women or to ask them whether they will continue working after marriage.
There are exemptions when only a person of a specific gender can perform the work, such as working as a soprano, modeling for men’s clothing, or being the superintendent of a men’s dormitory, according to the ministry.
“Many employers do not even know such unreasonable recruitment conditions are illegal. We’ll intensify our awareness campaign so that the rules are thoroughly implemented,” the ministry said.