The National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) made a recommendation to the Executive Director of “A” Airline to develop a remedy for a petitioner whose employment was revoked merely due to the fact that he suffered from bladder cancer in the past which was successfully removed after a surgery almost 4 years ago. The NHRCK also recommended the Airline to prevent recurrence of such discriminatory practice.
Mr. K, the petitioner, submitted an individual complaint on February 28 2011, insisting that his hiring was turned down simply because the cancer surgery history that was indicated during a medical check-up arranged by the company following their offer of a job in a construction division.
The company, however, claimed that Mr. K had the surgery only three years and eleven months ago. In the meantime the risk of relapse is known to be the highest during the first five years after surgery. Furthermore, the job position he was supposed to take involves frequent business trips overseas and bladder cancer, in particular, reportedly has higher possibility of relapse than any other types of diseases. They argued, therefore, it is not appropriate to hire him due to the high possibility of cancer recurrence while performing the job.
According to an investigation of the NHRCK, the petitioner had a surgery to remove bladder cancer in March 2007 and had been regularly receiving physical examinations such as blood tests without any medication. The medical certificate issued by a university hospital indicates that the possibility of relapse is extremely low and even if the disease reappears, one or two days of hospitalization is enough. Moreover, he does not have any problem in daily life. According to the Korean Urological Oncology Society, for people like the petitioner, no extra care is needed in performing a job after a surgery. The job description of the petitioner’s is not deemed challengeable for him to perform.
The NHRCK decides that the requirement of ‘five years after surgery’ is not a reasonable standard to determine whether or not to hire a person who had cancer history because the progress of a disease varies depending on one’s health condition or living environment. And the reasoning is inconsequent that the petitioner will have a disease again only because the possibility of bladder cancer is high. Also, one or two days in bed in case of a relapse is not a great concern enough to dismiss him.
The medical checkup which the Airline conducted also does not provide any evidence of his inability to carry out professional tasks. Nonetheless, the company unfairly gives penalty to the petitioner for his medical history even though it was honestly provided by Mr. K himself, which, in fact, constitutes discrimination against disease in the past.
Therefore, the Commission decided that it is discrimination the Airline company rejected the hiring of the petitioner on the grounds that his cancer surgery was performed in the past five years. In this regard, the NHRK recommended the company to take necessary measures to redress the case and prevent such discriminatory practices from recurrence.
