Korean Air in trouble over gender policy

Korean Air has been accused by the National Human Rights Commission of discrimination against men in its recruitment of cabin attendants.

The airline selects male cabin crew from existing staff, but it takes female crew from both internal and external applications.

The commission has asked Korean Air, the nation’s largest carrier, to change the system that allows only women to apply externally for flight attendant jobs. It said the system was gender-discriminatory and was contrary to the South Korean constitution.

It emphasized that all other domestic carriers and foreign companies hiring Korean crew do not favour a specific gender – but Korean Air had not opened cabin crew recruitment to men since 1997.

A Korean Air official said: ‘The basic [tenet] of our employment policy is cultivating all-around workers, so ordinary employees wanting to work as flight attendants apply for the position.’

He said the airline could maintain the number of male attendants through internal recruitment because they usually work long hours, but that it needs to select females externally because internal employees take maternity or childcare leave, or quit. The airline also claimed women are more attentive than men and have better qualities for the work.

Asiana Airlines, which had a similar policy, abolished the practice last year after the commission examined its recruiting system.