/ Yonhap



By Jung Min-ho

The government announced Wednesday that it has begun to put "blind hiring" into force for all public jobs ― a major step to change the country's highly intrusive recruitment practices.

Most notably, state-run companies are no longer allowed to request job applicants' photos and information that isn't directly related to job, including their physical appearance, family background and the names of schools they attended.

The Ministry of Employment and Labor said it will distribute new guidelines to all 332 public institutions, which must carry out the policy immediately. The 149 public institutions under the control of local governments will follow suit next month after receiving the ministry's education.

A draft of a new resume for public jobs / Yonhap

"The government came up with the policy to ensure that all job seekers can compete fairly," Vice Minister Yi Sung-ki said.

But exceptions are allowed for certain positions. Employers, for example, may ask about the job applicants' eyesight for security positions. Even then the information they request should only be "essentially job-related."

Also during job interviews, employers should continue to comply with the rule: no questions about anything unrelated to work.

The ministry will also push ahead with making a law to require private firms to do the same. Meanwhile, it plans to distribute the recruitment manuals to 400 major firms and run training for them.

Most private companies, however, remain reluctant to follow suit despite President Moon Jae-in's efforts to change the country's "discriminatory hiring practices."

According to a survey by job portal Saramin, only 6.1 private firms hire people through blind screening. When asked whether they are willing to adopt the system, 52 percent said "no."

"The key point of the policy is to eliminate bias in the hiring process," Yi said. "Some argue that it is discriminatory against those who studied hard to get into good schools, but if they have the abilities (that live up to the school names), they will still be able to make it."

Korea has long been notorious for its intrusive hiring practices that require job applicants to reveal not only sensitive personal information, such as weight, height and blood type, but also their parents' professions and income levels.

It has been over a decade since the National Human Rights Commission advised companies not to do so in 2003. Yet little had changed ― until President Moon made an announcement last month to shake up the system up during a media briefing.

Perhaps Korean jobseekers have become numb to such discrimination, but it is considered illegal in many developed countries.

In the United States, for example, questions about job applicants' height and weight may be viewed as illegal under federal law and could draw lawsuits unless the question is relevant to the job.