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Investigations and Remedies for Discrimination Based on Medical History [2006] KRNHRC 15 (1 September 2006)

Discrimination based on medical history refers to acts of favorably treating, excluding,
differentiating, or unfavorably treating a person or a group of people in many areas
including employment, without reasonable causes, only because the person or the group
has certain medical history.

Discrimination on the grounds of medical history of pediatric diabetes in employment
The complainant, who had suffered pediatric diabetes, applied for a loan scholarship
offered by a private company and failed to receive the scholarship after receiving three
physical examinations. The respondent said that it did not give the scholarship to the
complainant because the duties would be too heavy for the complainant in physical and
psychological terms even though the complainant passed the physical examinations. The
complainant insisted that the respondent's decision was discrimination based on medical
history.

The respondent claimed that it could not give the scholarship to the complainant
because it stopped offering scholarships to students due to financial difficulties when the
complainant was receiving physical examinations.
An investigation found that the respondent selected three out of ten scholarship
applicants including the complainant in September 2006 and granted scholarship to two
applicants after a physical examination. However, the complainant had to receive
additional physical examinations on November 23, 2006 and March 9, 2007, and failed to
receive the scholarship on April 26, 2007. The respondent stopped granting the scholarship
to students due to financial difficulties on January 19, 2007.
Discrimination based on medical history in employment can be justified, only when the
medical history concerned is related to essential qualifications to fulfill the duty concerned
or interferes with critical business practices, or it is proven that people with certain medical
history cannot perform the duty even with appropriate equipment or assistance. Thus, only
when the employer evaluates the work performance of the workers with certain medical
records and fully demonstrates that they are not capable of fulfilling the duties, the act of
excluding people with certain medical history in employment is not regarded as
discrimination.

The Commission concluded that the respondent's act of excluding the complainant from
the scholarship program constituted discrimination based on medical history and that the
respondent needed to compensate for psychological and physical losses the complainant
suffered. Therefore, the Commission recommended that the respondent provide the
complainant with damages of 18 million won, equal to the one-year scholarship.