By Han Sang-hee
Forcing an employee to quit because he or she did not succeed in losing weight is discrimination, the National Human Rights Commission ruled Monday.
The commission’s decision came after a 31-year-old researcher identified as Cheong sent a petition in July last year saying that he quit after going through stress due to his superior’s demand he lose weight.
The vice president of the company sent an email to five relatively “large” employees, saying that they had to quit unless they reached a certain weight. Cheong, who started working April the same year, eventually left his job in June as he could not stand the stress of being pushed to exercise and lose weight.
In its ruling, the commission recommended the head of the company come up with measures that will prevent any similar cases in the future. It also ordered the company to pay 5 million won ($4,460) to Cheong in compensation.
``The petitioner’s decision to quit was made after being pressured to lose weight,’’ the commission’s report said.
The email sent by the company’s vice president to executives last June stated that there were ``employees who had difficulty in everyday life, let alone hiking’’ and that they should ``have the employees prepare letters of resignation in case they don’t fulfill their goal.’’
Meanwhile, the company argued that it did not order any employee to lose weight and activities for leisure were done voluntarily.
``We decided that it was profitable in the long term for the company to encourage various activities for the health of our employees. We have been supporting employees’ activities for this reason, such as paying for equipment needed for ping pong, kendo and hiking,’’ the company was quoted as saying by the commission.
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