The NHRC analyzed written applications of acquiring jobs in major companies. There were at least 4 discriminatory questions, which contrast significantly with guidelines of the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) in the USA. (01-07-2003)
The National Human Rights Commission clarified, after analyzing written applications, that all applications of 38 companies analyzed, had at least 4 discriminatory questions on their written applications, including questions about family relationships, individual abilities, physical condition and privacies not related to the purpose of recruiting. Those companies, 34 large corporations and 4 state enterprises, hired over 50 employees in 2001.
The NHRC concluded that the discriminatory questions for applications of the 38 companies violate the rights to equality for opportunities, considering that the contents of written applications can affect the decision for employment.
In addition, the NHRC claimed that the discriminatory factors are not related to their real abilities and also there are wide differences between these applications and the Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures of the EEOC in the USA.
Therefore, the NHRC will collectively analyze contents of applications, questionnaires, and guidelines for interviewing at major corporations in 2002 and 2003. Then, the NHRC will recommend the preventive measures against these discriminatory practices relevant to employment, through the organized opinion of relevant experts.
The discriminatory contents of applications are as follows ;
Questions about privacy - All applicants who applied for 38 companies should fill out applications including questions about such as age, sex, and schools attended. In the case of the schools attended, 37 companies wished to know applicants were graduated from branches or main campuses of universities, while 20 companies wished to know applicants attended day schools or night schools. In addition, applicants specifically requested to know why they were exempted from military services (35 companies), applicants" religions (32 companies), family status (28 companies), where they were from (19 companies), body type (14 companies), handicapped (11 companies), rent or owned their property (11 companies), marital status (10 companies), applicants" positions in his/her family (10 companies), asset information (8 companies), whether applicants have family member employed in that company (5 companies), recommenders (3 companies), organiztions applicants belong to (3 companies), medical history (2 companies), certificates of qualifications (2 companies), and introduction of relatives (1 companies) were suggested.
Questions about physique - While 7companies did not ask questions about the body, 31 companies asked questions about bodies, such as weight (30 companies), achromatopsia (color blindness) or dischromatopsia (color weakness) (29 companies), height (27 companies), vision (23 companies) and blood type (21 companies).
Questions about family - 34 companies suggested writing information about family relationships, while 4 companies did not suggest. The details asked deal with are name/age (34 companies), educational background / schools graduated from (33 companies), their workplaces (29 companies), status at the workplace (28 companies), and vocation (10companies).
For reference, the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) strictly regulates the content of private information for applications with the understanding that forms of applications can make an impact, and lead to exclusion of the specific person or group from being hired. And the EEOC stipulates that forms of applications for hiring should be based on the Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures.
