"Human Rights Commission Decision: 'Male Night Duty Is Not Gender Discrimination' Sparks Online Debate"

Office Workers File Human Rights Complaint on 'Night Duty Only for Men'
Human Rights Commission Dismisses, Saying "Cannot Be Considered Significantly Disadvantageous Work"
However, "Security Enhancements Should Ensure Women Also Can Work Without Difficulty"

[Asia Economy Culture Young Intern Reporter] The National Human Rights Commission's Discrimination Correction Committee has ruled that having only male employees perform overnight duty is "not discrimination," sparking controversy mainly across various online communities.

The National Human Rights Commission dismissed a complaint filed by Mr. A, who works at an agricultural cooperative IT center in Gyeonggi Province, alleging that assigning female employees to daytime weekend and holiday shifts while assigning male employees to overnight duty constitutes unfavorable treatment against men and discrimination based on gender.

The Discrimination Correction Committee of the Human Rights Commission judged, "Overnight duty involves one round of patrol, but the rest of the tasks are similar to daytime shifts and mostly consist of indoor work within the duty room, so it is difficult to consider it a particularly more strenuous task." They further explained the dismissal decision by stating, "Although the overnight shift is about six hours longer than the daytime holiday shift, employees can take about five hours of rest in the middle and are granted four hours of compensatory leave, so it is hard to view it as significantly disadvantageous work."

The committee added, "If overnight duty were uniformly imposed on women in such circumstances, it would be a very formal and mechanical equality," emphasizing, "In unequal gender power relations, women may be vulnerable to risks such as violence, and the fear and anxiety women experience at night cannot be overlooked."

Decision document of the National Human Rights Commission posted by Mr. A on an online community. Source=Yonhap News

The majority of men strongly opposed this Human Rights Commission decision. In an interview with Yonhap News on the 19th, Mr. A said, "I filed the complaint last August, but the conclusion reached after one year and four months is hard to accept," adding, "It feels like the conclusion was predetermined and then pieced together." He expressed suspicion that "the Discrimination Correction Committee is female-centered and may be biased toward women," and stated, "My male colleagues are also strongly opposing this."

Indeed, on male-dominated online communities, there has been fierce backlash with comments such as "Do men not feel fear?" in response to the Human Rights Commission decision document disclosed by Mr. A. They argue that the decision is unreasonable, female-biased, and that the content of the decision document itself is discriminatory.

However, the committee suggested, "If the number of female employees increases and security facilities improve, making it easier for women to perform overnight duty, the direction should move toward assigning duty shifts without gender distinction." They also added, "From the perspective of gender equality, it would be reasonable to allow men to choose their duty method depending on family care situations."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.