Bill seeks to ban photo on resume

By Lee Tae-hoon

Staff reporter

A lawmaker has submitted a revision that would penalize employers for demanding that job seekers include or attach a photo on their resume.

Rep. Chung Ok-nim of the governing Grand National Party (GNP) said she proposed the bill Monday in an effort to prevent an employer from discriminating an employee or applicant based on appearance or gender.

"There have been various legal protections available to protect female workers. But numerous surveys and personnel managers suggest that appearance still matters a lot in hiring," Chung said.

Under the current law, employers are banned from requesting information on appearance, height, weight, marriage status from prospective employees, unless such conditions are necessary in performing duties.

To overcome the ineffectiveness of the law, Chung added a clause that specifies a penalty of 5 million won ($4,200) for demanding a photo from job seekers, regardless of genders.

However, such revision still faces an uncertain future as it has yet to close a loophole as employers will continue to be able to request both photos and other appearance-related information if necessary for performing duties.

A 2006 government survey found that 80 percent of public companies and 85.4 of private companies demanded such personnel information and nearly half of them score candidates based on appearance during interviews.

The poll also found that 92.2 percent of the public believed female job seekers were discriminated based on appearance.

Korea and Japan are the two of the OECD member countries that demand a photo be included in a resume. .