The Employer's Obligations in the Recruitment Process

I. Introduction

Recruitment of workers is in principle the employer's prerogative, and for years there was no law to regulate it. While the employment documents and recruitment review costs required by employers when hiring employees are a great burden to job seekers, there have been rare instances where the employer has returned the employment documents voluntarily or has returned them when requested by the job seeker. In addition, there have been irregularities in the recruitment process, such as retaining business suggestions of job seekers, and posting false recruitment advertisements for the purpose of promoting companies. As a result, the Act on the Fairness of the Recruitment Procedures (hereinafter referred to as the "Recruitment Procedure Act" or “the RPA”) was enacted in 2014, and employers who ordinarily employ more than 30 workers fall under this Act, which limits their rights in the recruitment process (Article 3).
Numerous recruiting scandals have occurred recently in both public and private companies, and so a need was perceived for systematic supplementation in order to guarantee the fairness of the recruitment process. On July 17, 2019, the Recruitment Procedure Act was partially amended and implemented. The RPA prohibits anyone from illegally asking, pressuring, or forcing hiring practices in violation of the law (Article 4-2, Paragraph 1), and also prohibits the act of giving or receiving goods, entertainment, or property regarding recruitment (Article 402, Paragraph 2). In addition, a penal clause (Article 17) has been newly-established in case of violation, which implements effective sanctions measures.
In this article, I will look closely at how strictly unfair employment practices can be sanctioned and the employers’ obligations in the process of hiring. This should help you understand the employer's obligations in the recruitment process.

II. Sanctions on Unfair Practices in Hiring Procedures
1. Prohibition of false advertising (Article 4 of the Act)
Employers shall not put out a false recruitment advertisement for purposes such as collecting ideas or publicizing the workplace under the pretense of recruitment. Any employer who puts out a false recruitment advertisement in violation of this Act shall be punished by imprisonment of up to five years or a fine not exceeding KRW 20 million (Article 16 of the Act). This Article was designed to protect the interests of job applicants and to prevent the occurrence of social costs and damages.
In addition, the employer shall not change the recruitment advertisement adversely to the job seeker without justifiable reason, or adversely change the working conditions presented in the recruitment advertisement without justifiable reason after employing the job seeker. The employer shall not force the applicant to assign his ownership of intellectual property rights such as employment documents and related papers. In violation of this, the employer will be charged a fine of up to KRW 5 million (Article 17).
This implies that a change in the type of job, type of employment and/or working conditions proposed in the recruitment advertisement by the employer violates the principle of good faith, and shall not be allowed in consideration of the need to protect the trust of jobseekers in the job announcement. The prohibition against changing the working conditions as presented in the recruitment advertisement is intended to protect the interests of the job seeker by prohibiting an unfavorable change of working conditions, considering the fact that the job seeker is inferior to the employer. In addition, the copyright and intellectual property rights of the jobseekers are protected by related laws such as the "Copyright Act" and "Intellectual Property Basic Law", but because of the lack of substantive protection, the introduction of such restrictions in the Recruitment Procedure Act will enlarge the scope of direct protection.

2. Prohibition of unfair recruiting (Article 4-2 of the Act)
Whether or not an employer hires a particular individual is the employer's own prerogative, and needs to be respected. However, if employees are being hired through open competition rather than individual recruitment, they should be given fair competition opportunities based on the job announcement. The revised Law on Recruitment Procedures enacted in July 2019 is intended to prevent unfair employment practices and to prevent actions such as unfair requests, oppression and force that hinder sound employment and the social order; this Act also prohibits the offering or receiving of money or goods. In case of violation, it imposes a fine of up to KRW 30 million.
Although the existing penalties for unfair employment apply to business obstruction of the Criminal Law, there are limits to the application for criminal offenses. Therefore, the Recruitment Procedure Act introduced this new content and can now punish unfair recruitment practices as a labor law. In order to establish a business obstruction in Article 314 of the Criminal Act in the case of unfair recruitment, it is necessary to have an illegal act in the form of hierarchy or power information-processing, and the action must interfere with human affairs; that is, the work of others. However, there is a legal limit applying this Criminal Act because the person who engages in illegal recruitment is usually the decision-maker of the company, and the recruitment work corresponds to his original work and does not correspond to the 'other person's work'. Therefore, it is meaningful that we can now partially supplement the vacancy in the punishment of unfair recruitment practices in the Criminal Act by introducing the prohibition of unfair recruitment practices in the Recruitment Procedure Act.

3. Prohibition of requesting personal information that is not relevant to the job (Article 4-3 of the Act)
The employer is not allowed to require that the applicant include personal information in the Basic Recruitment Form that is not required for the performance of his/her job, or to collect it as evidence material. Such restricted personal information shall be collected and processed only in accordance with the following conditions: (i) the physical condition of the applicant's appearance, height, weight, etc., (ii) the area of origin of the applicant, marital status and property; (iii) education, occupation, and property. In case of violation, a penalty of up to KRW 5 million will be imposed. However, in the legislative process, the attachment of an identification photo to the employment documents was excluded from the collection restrictions. The reason for this is that ID photos are considered a necessary part of the applicant's identity verification in both the recruitment review and the interview.

4. Prohibition of jobseekers paying for recruitment review (Article 9 of the Act)
The employer shall not incur any monetary cost (recruitment review fee) for the job seeker other than the cost of submitting the job application document to the applicant. However, if there is an unavoidable circumstance due to the specific nature of the workplace or occupation, it may be approved by the Minister of Employment and Labor to have a job seeker pay a portion of the recruitment review fee. In case of violation of this, a penalty of up to KRW 3 million is imposed.
Here, the recruitment review costs are directly related to the recruitment, such as the cost of planning and preparing the recruitment, the cost of the recruitment ad, etc., and the cost of recruiting applicants, which refers to any indirect costs. The employer shall be fully liable for this cost in accordance with the principle of beneficiary burden.

III. The Employer’s Ob