Home | Databases | WorldLII | Search | Feedback National Human Rights Commission of Korea - Complaint Summaries

Investigations and Remedies for Discrimination on the Grounds of Pregnancy or Childbirth [2008] KRNHRC 12 (1 January 2008)

Discrimination based on pregnancy or childbirth refers to acts of favorably treating,
excluding, differentiating against or unfavorably treating a person in many areas including
employment, without reasonable causes, only because the person is pregnant or has given
birth to a baby or is likely to be pregnant or give birth to a baby. The National Human
Rights Commission Act regards discrimination based on pregnancy or childbirth as a
separate type of discrimination from gender discrimination.

This means that it prohibits not only discrimination between women and men based
on pregnancy or childbirth but also discrimination between women on the grounds of
pregnancy or childbirth. Employment discrimination against those who take maternity
and childcare leave Kim, who had worked for Company as a Public Relations Manager for three
years, filed a complaint against her boss and executives of Company. The
complainant tried to go back to her work after a six-month maternity and childcare leave.
However, the respondents said, "You have been away for too long. We need a male
manager," and ordered Kim to quit her job. When the complainant did not quit her job,
they demoted her to a clerk and forced her to sign an agreement to limit her scope of work.
The respondents claimed that they had to ask the complainant to quit her job and sign
the agreement, because she was not capable of fulfilling her duty as a manager. They also
insisted that they demoted the complainant to a clerk as part of the company-wide
restructuring plan and denied saying that they needed a male manager.
After investigation, the Commission ruled that the incident occurred due to prejudices
against female PR managers interacting with mostly male reporters, as well as disapproval
of married women with children working. Before her leave there had been no concerns
regarding the complainant's performance at work, and only the complainant had been
demoted during the company's restructuring plan. Additionally, respondents repeatedly
requested the complainant to resign and stated that she would be demoted even if she
returned, and made the complainant sign an agreement to limit the scope of her work.

The Commission ruled that the complainant was unfairly pressured to quit her job and that the
incident constituted a discriminatory act. Also, it pointed out that because the respondents
had not acted on their personal beliefs but were acting for the company, the President of
Company should be held accountable for the incident.
The Commission recommended that the President of Company provide
damages of 5 million won to the complainant, take disciplinary action against the
respondents, and come up with measures to prevent discrimination against those who take
a maternity or childcare leave.