Human Rights Commission: Refusal of Employment Due to Expired Drunk Driving Record Is Discrimination

[Asia Economy Reporter Seongpil Cho] The National Human Rights Commission announced on the 12th that refusing employment due to an expired criminal record constitutes discrimination, and recommended the relevant research institute cancel the notice of non-appointment and establish reasonable screening criteria for individuals with special background issues.

On the same day, the Human Rights Commission made this judgment regarding the case where Mr. A filed a complaint stating, "I was refused employment due to an expired drunk driving record unrelated to the job." In the recommendation, the Commission explained, "The complainant's criminal record is a traffic law violation due to drunk driving, which is not directly related to the research position applied for," and "The respondent's refusal to hire the complainant due to the expired criminal record constitutes discriminatory behavior without reasonable grounds."

Earlier, Mr. A applied for a fixed-term research position following the recruitment announcement by the respondent research institute in April last year and passed both the first document screening and the second interview screening. However, he was ultimately notified of non-appointment due to his drunk driving record. Mr. A was fined 1 million won in 2018 for drunk driving. At the time of the drunk driving incident, Mr. A's blood alcohol concentration was reported to be below 0.08%. The validity period of the fine imposed on Mr. A was two years.

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