Illegal information gathering unrelated to job duties during document screening
Interview questions are not subject to the Recruitment Procedure Act
Over the past two years, there have been 84 reported cases of personal information infringement due to unnecessary questions about applicants' place of origin and marital status during interviews.
On the 13th, Yoon Joo-kyung, a member of the National Assembly's Political Affairs Committee from the People Power Party, cited data received from the Ministry of Employment and Labor to announce cases of personal information infringement during the job application process from 2021 to 2022.
There were a total of 384 reports of personal information infringement, of which 300 cases involved collecting unnecessary information during the document screening stage, and 84 cases involved inquiries about personal information during interviews.
Collecting Personal Information Unrelated to Job Performance Is Illegal
According to the guidelines of the Personal Information Protection Commission and the Ministry of Employment and Labor, information regarding a job seeker's physical conditions such as appearance, height, and weight, as well as their place of origin, marital status, assets, and the academic background, occupation, and assets of their direct relatives and siblings must not be collected. [Photo by Pixabay]
According to the "Act on the Fairness of Hiring Procedures" (hereinafter referred to as the Hiring Procedures Act), applicants must not be required to provide or submit evidence of information unrelated to job performance, such as place of origin, during the initial screening process. In other words, personal information unrelated to the job must not be collected during document evaluation.
However, the Hiring Procedures Act does not apply when interviewers ask questions during interviews, allowing the collection of information that may be disadvantageous to applicants.
In March, at a bank, during an interview for hiring dispatched employees, applicants were asked questions such as "Why did you graduate through the GED?" and "Were you a victim of school violence?" The interviewer continued to ask questions unrelated to the job, including inquiries about the applicant's father's occupation.
The Personal Information Protection Commission and the Ministry of Employment and Labor have created the "Guidelines on Personnel and Labor Regarding Personal Information Protection" to provide personal information protection instructions to be followed during personnel and labor processes. However, since these guidelines lack legal enforceability, it is difficult to prevent excessive collection of personal information during interviews.
The guidelines advise that information about applicants' physical conditions such as appearance, height, and weight; place of origin; marital status; assets; and the education, occupation, and assets of direct relatives and siblings must not be collected.
Before the hiring process, applicants should be informed in advance not to submit such unnecessary personal information, and the results of the selection must be directly communicated to the applicants.
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